Mat-Su sets aside Zero Lake Road land for a future shooting range

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly set aside land on Zero Lake Road on Tuesday for a future shooting range, over objections neighbors have been raising for close to a year. One cabin owner's structure sits about 1,000 feet downrange.

The vote does one thing: it designates the parcel for that use. It authorizes no construction, no design, no timeline, and it spends no money.

Residents and cabin owners who testified against the site raised wildfire risk, lead washing downstream, the absence of any borough-owned road reaching the property, and a fault line running through the area. They pointed to an alternative parcel already zoned heavy industrial and asked the borough to hold off for two years.

The case for the site came partly from a man who was shot in the neck near it in 2020 and wrote to the assembly supporting a regulated range. Mayor Edna DeVries said a range would "corral some of these ahoos."

Assembly members Bowles and Nowers voted against the classification. The assembly approved two other land classifications the same night, near Milepost 123 and Milepost 77 of the Parks Highway.