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Parents, daycare director urge city to block gun shop next to IXL; planning staff to draft zoning changes
Summary
Dozens of parents and IXL staff urged the Planning Commission to prevent Red Zone Firearms from opening next to a state-funded daycare at 15600 W. 12 Mile; Planning Director said the location is currently allowed in B3 retail but promised to draft amendments (special land-use requirement and separation buffers) and schedule a public hearing for Oct. 8.
A sustained public outcry at the Sept. 24 Planning Commission meeting urged the city to stop a firearms retailer, Red Zone Firearms, from opening at 15660 West 12 Mile Road, adjacent to IXL Learning Center (15600 West 12 Mile), which parents and staff said houses state-funded preschool classrooms and playgrounds.
Multiple speakers — parents, neighbors and the director of IXL Learning Center — described alarm at discovering a gun shop would share a driveway and be fewer than 100 feet from daycare spaces and about 200 feet from the playground. Commenters asked the commission to use zoning tools to prevent the store opening in that location and to adopt a separation requirement of 1,000 feet or some safer distance between firearms retailers and childcare facilities.
Jennifer Kramer, a parent, said the location is “immediately next door” to a daycare where two of her children attend and expressed concern about firearms being transported across shared driveways. Sean Spanbauer said a gun shop “normalizes them to children” and asked the commission to change local zoning rules. Patrick McGee and several other parents described line-of-sight to playgrounds and asked for relocation or ordinance changes. Lindsay Larrabee, director of the IXL Learning Center, said the center was not notified of the new tenant and that staff and families are fearful.
Planning Director responded that the retail sale of firearms and accessories is a permitted retail use in the B3 General Business District and that the current store opening did not require a zoning amendment, special land use or site plan review under existing code. He said planning, police, fire, legal and building departments are reviewing state and federal rules and will propose new requirements to prevent similar situations. The director said he will recommend that future firearms and accessory sales be processed as a special land use, include separation requirements consistent with other uses (citing alcohol and marijuana as comparators) and potentially be limited to specific districts; he directed staff to schedule a public hearing and expected draft amendments for the Oct. 8 study meeting.
The commission did not take immediate remedial enforcement action at the meeting; the director said staff are investigating whether remedies exist for the existing business under state and federal law and would report back. The public-comment speakers urged expedited action and a city-led effort to identify alternative commercial locations for the shop.
