Gun Club Plan Raises Concern for Neighbors : Land use: Displaced by a road project, the group wants to relocate on 500 acres in Black Star Canyon. But residents fear stray bullets, traffic.

When Dan Dulac, a contractor and “weekend shooter,” heard that some sort of gun club might be locating nearby, he was intrigued.

When he found out the size of the range and the location--right under his remote mountain home--he was appalled.

“I’m not against gun clubs or reasonable ownership of guns,” he said. “I’m a shooter. What I’m opposed to is putting a shooting range this close to residential homes without looking at all the impacts. . . . There is a right place for this type of use.”

Forced to relocate to make way for the Eastern Transportation Corridor, owners of the Orange County Shooting and Training Center in Irvine have set their sights on leasing more than 500 acres of Irvine Co. land in the pristine Black Star Canyon east of Orange. The Irvine Co. is the club’s present landlord.

Dulac and his neighbors said they only recently learned about the plans and are worried that the club might pose a danger to residents, and bring traffic and noise to this tranquil corner of Orange County.

Club officials chose the site because it is close, accessible and the only wide-open space in the county they could afford, said club president Harold Ingram.

Ingram said the club’s studies show that the impact on noise, traffic and wildlife would be minimal. He said hunting is not allowed at the present facility and it will not be allowed at the Black Star Canyon site. The club has operated successfully with a gnatcatcher preserve on its current site in Irvine for years, Ingram said.

“Our relocation will only affect a few people in that neighborhood and we hope positively,” Ingram said. “We want to be good neighbors.”

On Monday, club officials plan to turn over the noise, traffic and environmental studies they have conducted over the past year to the Orange County Planning Commission. They are seeking a “negative declaration,” which means the proposed use of the land would not have enough impact to require a full-blown environmental impact study, known as an EIR.

“A full-blown EIR would hurt us,” said Dennis Yeager, the club’s assistant manager. “Because of the financial hardship, we would just have to close down.”

The range, formerly known as the South Coast Gun Club, is a member-owned, nonprofit gun club and the only full-service, outdoor shooting facility in Orange County, Yeager said. About 15,000 recreational shooters, along with officers from numerous law enforcement agencies, pay $4 to $10 a visit to use the pistol and rifle range, he said. The club also offers skeet and trapshooting.

The current club site off Jeffrey Road is on 70 acres. The fields for primary events on the new site, including a separate range for law enforcement officers, would be about 84 acres, with the additional acreage providing a buffer zone, Yeager said.

The club has spent $80,000 on environmental studies on the Black Star Canyon area, Ingram said. Officials began hunting for a site 10 years ago with The Irvine Co., which leases them their current site.

Ingram said that club officials plan to talk to all of the approximately 2,000 residents near the site before the issue goes to a public hearing. But, he added, “most of the people in that area support us.”

That was news to Dulac and other neighbors, who said they learned of the proposal only recently, when they spotted surveyors and other land consultants in the area.

Dulac distributed about 600 flyers and put up signs advising residents about plans for the gun club.

Sherry Meddick, who lives in nearby Silverado Canyon, said she wants a careful environmental study before any approvals are given.

“There are streams that go across all of those properties,” she said. “The area is heavily used. For them to say it doesn’t affect those around them is totally wrong.”

“It’s remote and it’s wild,” she said. “You have every kind of large mammal and raptor in this county using these lands. These foothill areas are precious for what’s there, not because the land is waiting to be used.”

Dulac and Meddick said they worry that the gun club’s relocation will be a done deal with the county by the time residents have a chance to speak out at a public hearing.

But Peter Changala, director of agriculture for the Irvine Co., said the panic is premature. “I think there is a misconception that there is a deal cut,” he said. “A deal has not been cut. There is still a lot of investigation that needs to be done.”

“It’s all contingent on them receiving the appropriate permits from the county,” he said.

Yeager noted that the club would be grading only about 20 acres and has altered plans for a road into the property so that only one tree would be lost. The shooting ranges would be a great distance from residential areas, he said. Shooting in the club is tightly controlled and drunks, cut-ups and other undesirables are “asked to leave and not invited back,” he said.

Dulac disagreed with the club about the possible danger from stray bullets and possible fire hazards from gunfire.

He is worried about the safety of his two young daughters and about the types of shooters who will be drawn to the area. “How are they going to make this safe for me?” he asked. “I’m concerned about what kind of people will come up there. People will decide they don’t want to pay and they’ll go up the road to shoot.”

Frequent users of the gun club said the concerns of canyon residents about shooters are baseless.

The Times interviewed several shooters at the Irvine range on Saturday. “The main stress of this shooting sport is safety,” said C. Wilkinson, who declined to give his first name but said he was a medical lab supervisor who lives in San Clemente. “It’s a very exacting sport,” he added.

Yeager and Ingram said the club’s clientele are working, responsible gun owners--nothing like the militia types who have been blamed for the Oklahoma City bombing.

“If you look at militias, you know they are paramilitary groups and they do not want to train on controlled ranges--they want to be able to go out and blow everything away, and they can’t do that here,” he said.

Most people who shoot indiscriminately would be afraid of the swarms of law enforcement officers who use the site, said Richard Culbertson, a Costa Mesa auto technician who uses the club.

“This gun does not pose a danger to anybody,” he said, nodding to the Winchester 101 rifle in his arms. “You have more hazard from yahoos that do not come to a place like this. . . . If someone went nuts here you would have pretty quick enforcement.”