SHOOTING RANGE NEXT TO LANDFILL? SIMI VALLEY SEEKS AREA FOR POLICE PRACTICE.

Byline: ERIC LEACH

Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY -- City officials hope to build a new shooting range next to the Simi Valley Landfill in a project they say should eventually save the city's Police Department thousands of dollars a year in travel costs and overtime.

City Manager Mike Sedell said the city wants to build the shooting range in a buffer zone around the landfill and has selected a potential site for the project that the city would like to complete within 18 months.

But a final location hasn't been determined and would be subject to noise studies and a review by Ventura County officials, he said, explaining that city officials haven't figured out how much work will be involved or exactly how much it will all cost.

"It depends on what kind of infrastructure we have to put in," he said.

In any case, the cost savings of having a local shooting range will quickly add up to cover the costs, he said.

"It will probably pay for itself within two or three years," Sedell said.

Simi Valley police now drive into Angeles National Forest in the mountains north of La Canada Flintridge to fulfill their firearms qualification requirements under an annual lease agreement, and the trip costs the the department money for gas and wear and tear.

"All of this adds up. There's also a significant overtime cost," Sedell said.

Kit Cole, a spokeswoman for Waste Management Inc., which owns the landfill, said while her company and the police agree on the concept, the details remain unresolved.

"We're absolutely supportive of having a police training facility on our property. We feel it's an extension of the work we do in the community, in terms of being a partner with groups like the Simi Valley Police Department that are trying to stretch resources," Cole said.

A new shooting range could also be used by other local, state and federal law enforcement officers who live in the Simi Valley area and want to use a local shooting range to fulfill their shooting qualification requirements.

Simi Valley alone has 125 officers who use ranges to meet their skill requirements about once a month, said Simi Valley police Capt. Ron Chambers.

"We've been looking for a new range since we had to close the Hopetown range in the late 1980s," said Chambers, referring to the department's old shooting site in the Corriganville area at the east end of the city.

"The (landfill buffer) area lends itself to a range. It's surrounded by steep hills on three sides with access from the fourth site. It's a remote area, kind of a box canyon."

Although the range might be used by law enforcement officers from various agencies, the city does not plan to open it as a public shooting range, Sedell said.

Because of safety and noise concerns, a shooting range needs a wide area of open space, which makes appropriate land difficult to find in a suburban area, he added.

"We need a buffer zone of open space," Sedell said. "The area around the landfill would be secluded. It would be secure. We don't want people in the neighborhoods disturbed when they hear gunfire. In the area near the landfill you wouldn't have the noise complaints."

City officials have been talking to Waste Management about a shooting range by the landfill for several years, and the project has absolutely nothing to do with Waste Management's efforts to double the landfill's size.

The proposal to expand the landfill in unincorporated territory just northwest of Simi Valley has been submitted to Ventura County officials for review.

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