Meeting in person at Thomas Auditorium, zoning board members voted unanimously to uphold the decision of code enforcement director Toby Linville, who had ruled that a gun range on a vacant 9.7-acre parcel in Edneyville was not a commercial facility requiring a special-use permit under the county’s land development code (LDC).
Forty-five people who were spread far apart in the auditorium had been greeted at the hall’s entrance by 10 sheriff’s Kevlar-deputies, who remained throughout the four-hour meeting to ensure order.
The subject of the hearing was a shooting range built by Travis Rector on land he owns with his wife, Virginia “Ginney” Fox Rector, off Osprey Lane north of Point Lookout Vineyards. A former Hendersonville police officer, Rector owns a gunsmithing and firearms training business, although he testified he conducts no training at the gun range on his property.