Indoor gun ranges allowed in certain Ballwin areas

Anyone that wants to build an indoor shooting range in Ballwin now has the opportunity to do so. 

If you're interested, you'd need to present a plan to the city's Planning and Zoning commission and, if approved, the proposal would then be seen by the Ballwin Board of Aldermen.

"Until tonight, if someone would have presented that, it wouldn't have been looked at because it couldn't be issued," Ward 1 Alderman Jimmy Terbrock said. 

The Ballwin Board of Aldermen approved an ordinance Monday night, which amended an article in the zoning ordinances to make indoor shooting ranges a use allowed by special exception in the C-1 zoning district. 

The issue arose after the city had been approached by a business owner about bringing an indoor gun range to Ballwin, Mayor Tim Pogue said. The board found it was not clear in the ordinances whether they could legally review the proposal.

"What we did tonight was basically a house keeping measure," Pogue said. There is a separate petition, to bring an indoor gun range to the former location of Rothman Furniture, that is being reviewed by the planning and zoning commission. But the commission couldn't take a formal action until the Board of Aldermen approved indoor gun ranges as allowed under the special exemption use, Pogue said.