Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you. ¶¶ Please stand and join me to salute the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call, please. Commissioner Vu? Here. Commissioner Brothers is excused. Commissioner Escona? Here. Commissioner James? Here. Vice Chair Huebner?

Here.

And Chair Leninger is excused as well. We have a quorum.

Are there any supplemental communications tonight?

Yes, we had one, which is a slight change to a resolution before you, and I believe the project planner will go over that change with you.

Thank you. If there is anyone on Zoom, Zoom participants wishing to address the planning commission can include through the chat feature which item you would like to speak on and click the raise hand icon to let the administrator know that you wish to speak. Anyone in the audience wishing to speak must fill out and submit a blue speaker card. the planning commission can take no action on this date unless the item is agendized anyone wishing to speak on items not on tonight's agenda may do so during public comments speakers on items scheduled for public hearing or non-public hearing items will be invited to speak when those items are heard all public comments are allowed up to three minutes to speak anyone wishing to speak on non-agendized items may do so at this time Do we have any requests to speak on non-agendized items?

No, we do not.

Moving on to the consent calendar, the April 8, 2026 Draft Planning Commission meeting minutes. Can I get a motion for item 1? I'll make a motion.

I second.

I have a motion from Commissioner Escona and a second from Commissioner Vu.

All in favor?

Yes.

Any opposed?

Motion passes 4-0. Now we move along to the public hearing. Before we start, I must note that it is customary for commissioners to visit applicant sites. Unless any commissioner has further disclosure statements at this time, it may be stated that no contact was made during the visit with the applicant, his or her agent, or neighbors of the proposed project. Elite CCW and Firearm Training Conditional Use Permit 1942. I will now, actually no, we have staff report right now.

Thank you, Commissioner and members of Planning Commission. Tonight before you is a hearing to consider conditional use permit 1942 submitted by Elite CCW Firearm Training to open and operate a firearms training business with an indoor shooting range located at 18269 through 18281 Mount Baldy Circle. The subject property is located in an active commercial and industrial part of the city. It's in the crossing-specific plan located in the purple area called the Workplace Gateway Zone. So the location at Mount Baldy Circle is accessed off Condor and Euclid Street. The property consists of two industrial buildings with multi-tenant commercial and industrial businesses surrounded by a parking lot. There's some adjacent industrial businesses in the area. Surefire is located to the west and some other heavy commercial businesses, Tire Mart to the north and 405 Cabinets to the south. So the area is completely surrounded by industrial buildings and the freeway approximately 300 feet to the south. Again, these two buildings face the parking lot. That consists of 131 parking spaces. There's a total of 23 multi-tenants out there currently. So for the combined parking requirement for the uses in the park, a total of 94 parking spaces is required. Elite only requires 22. And the property has a total of 131 spaces. So with the total uses requiring 94, there is a surplus of 37 parking spaces calculated. Well, the interior is kind of split into two halves. The left half has a lobby, a simulator room, a classroom, and storage area. And the right side of the business has the indoor shooting ranges. which I'll go over in a minute. So the business operations, Elite CCW is currently located at 18313 Euclid Avenue and was approved by the Planning Commission in 2003 for the same business that's before you tonight. Back in 2004, they were approved for a four-lane firing range with a business that caters to people looking to obtain what's called a CCW, a Concealed Carry Weapon, permit. And that's to carry a firearm in public outside of their home, on the streets, out in public, in places where it's not otherwise legally prohibited, like, say, a courthouse. So they offer training classes for that for individuals to obtain that permit. They also offer simulating classes in shooting in general and offer classes in order to obtain a firearm safety certificate, which is required in order to purchase guns in California. This image shows a new shooting range that Elite will be bringing to the new location as they're expanding their operations out of the Euclid facility. This is a 10-lane modular range that is prefabricated and then assembled on site. So the total length is 60 feet long and provides a shooting field area of 40 feet for those 10 shooting lanes. And this image shows what is called the panelized pro range, how it looks. and it's built off site and then packaged up, brought over and then assembled on site. The picture on the right is the existing range that is currently out on the Euclid facility when we inspected last time. So to reduce noise and to prevent deception to the neighboring businesses, The walls of the ProRange will use a combination of additional wood framing, thick acoustic insulation, a material called mass-loaded vinyl, and additional material on the inside called sound foam to reduce noise on the inside and on the outside of the range. So that concludes staff's report and based on the applicant's proposal, staff recommends alternative one that you adopt resolution 26-10 and approve CUP 1942 for elite CCW to open and operate a firearms training business actually at 18269 through 18281 Mount Condor. And I wanted to show the commission this. Last week I was at the Fountain Valley Historical Society, and they had this picture on there. And it's a concealed carry permit from 1955 issued. by the chief of police from Huntington Beach at the time. In 1955, Fountain Valley was not a city. And then if you look at the address, this was issued to a Lawrence Ralph Doyle, and his address is 18141 South 2nd Street, Santa Ana, California. I thought that was odd. Why would it be at the Historical Society? Well, before Fountain Valley was a city, we use the address santa ana california and second street this is actually uh across the street from the mcdonald's at talbert and magnolia down off second street down there and this is approximately what fountain valley looked in 1955 and the x is where warrants lived where he received his concealed carry permit That concludes my report, and for the red folder item before you, that is condition number 14, that's a carryover from the previous conditional use permit that was issued to Elite for their Euclid business. When he opened up that business, he proposed to use lead-free ammunition as it's easier to dispose of, and there's less environmental regulations with disposing of non-lead ammunition and so that's what the applicant proposed at that time and that was a condition that we had in the conditions of approval. Now the applicant is allowing people coming in, customers to bring in their own ammo and people would be able to use live ammunition for target practice inside the ranges, which is common and not the lead-free. However, there's more environmental regulations that the applicant has to go through to dispose of that lead ammunition through regulations through the county health department. So it's an additional cost on the applicant to dispose of the lead ammunition, whereas before his existing facility, he didn't have that. And so that's why we had that condition for no customer ammo.

And that concludes my report.

Thank you. Any question from the commission?

I have one question for the staff. So in the report, they say the parking surplus we have is like 37 space. Surplus of 37, yes. uh so that is measure for 14 land range or because we additional 10 more right well for for the for elite we calculated 22 parking spaces based on the square footage of the business And have we account that when they got a peak hour when I know for files right there for a cabinet, there's a lot of people coming and a lot of machine shop around that area. It's on the truck, big truck and things. So have we account it's a peak hour when all the shooting range occupy and work together with the truck coming?

No, the parking wasn't calculated based on like a range of when they have a peak in their customers. It's just based on the square footage of the building and the ranges, lanes that are there, but not on any kind of a demand study, no.

Okay. All right.

Thank you. But there is much more parking than the applicant's current facility, 18313 Euclid, which has a front-facing parking lot on Euclid. The applicant may know an exact number, but there's probably less than 30 spaces versus where they're moving to. I mean, it's shared parking, but there's 131 parking spaces shared by industrial tenants that mostly have daytime business hours. Yes. Okay. Thanks a lot.

Would it also be fair to assume that the amount of people that are going to be visiting the range is going to be kind of self-limiting because there are only going to be so many stations available at any given time?

That would be correct.

Thank you. Any other questions? Is the applicant present?

The applicant, yes.

You may come and speak. Please be sure to state your name for the record, please.

Sure. I'm Mike Duda, D-U-D-A, chair and commissioner's director. Thank you guys for this opportunity to talk and address some stuff. If I could just, the parking, our parking lot is private. We're not open to 405 parking there. There's a sign that they'll get towed. And today, 405 had a big event, and they were actually, when I was talking with the owner of the property in the parking lot, he advised them, hey, you're good today, but just in the future, no, this is not open to the public. So it is private parking, and there's an excessive amount. It actually is kind of a neat little niche of I'm probably going to be busy from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. It's a ghost town in our complex because most businesses there are closed between 4.30 and 5 o'clock. So as far as traffic, there's lots of parking. There's hardly any street parking anywhere in that facility. The number of parking spots, we got about 15 in front of our place now. The location that we're moving to is about 350 feet from my back door to the front door of the new location. It is surrounded heavily by an industrial area. Still, we will make sure that you can't hear any noise outside that we're in there, which is what we have currently. We've been operating since 2023 with the range and no complaints, no issues, no nothing. We will continue to do that. If I could brag a little, we are rated 5.0, six years in business, 640 something reviews on Google. You know, 5.0. We bring a lot of pride and a lot of good tax money to the city by expanding. We'll be able to increase that. Any other questions? The range is modular, which means the manufacturer is going to put it together 100% self-contained pre-filter, bag filter, HEPA filtered air filtration system in it. When I say contained, it's Steel panels that's rifle rated even though we shoot handgun calibers and they are butted up to perfection and the ceiling walls There's no way for a round to escape. It is a self enclosed modular shooting range super safe has a rubber backstop and For all the range cleaning, there are companies that come out and everything that's actually shot is recyclable. The bullet, the casing, everything. And they'll clean the traps, clean all the lead, everything. In lieu of, they get to keep what they collect and then they recycle it. So any questions for us? Great. Thank you.

I got a couple questions, actually.

So for the lead and air quality recycle in the building, so I know it's under condition nine. They require the hazardous waste plan for lead removal. So I just want to know how often the HEPA and charcoal filter need to be refilled? Okay. Okay. and how, what certified third-party company we're using to changing those things.

Okay. So there's a heliomagnetic meter which tests the pressure of the air having to go through the filters. That signifies to us when it's supposed to be. We are contracted for the pre-filters to be changed monthly based upon the differential between When the filter is replaced, if the number does not drop significantly, that means the next filter is contaminated and it's causing back pressure. So based on that, when you replace them, there is no determination. of an exact amount. There is a screen that when the air goes through, it's screened so there's no large debris going in. The pre-filters are changed monthly. Right now it's lead free so there's no lead in there. But there is, Jason Bennett's company will be doing it, not Bennett, Weber, his company will be handling that. Action Target sends out and will be coordinating that. On Target, Greg Boslog, the owner of it, is my good friend, that when his range gets cleaned, ours will get cleaned out at the same time. That makes it more efficient for them to come out and scavenge or clean out the traps with the lead. Everything is receipts that proves that it's been collected by the company and they handle all the recycling.

Another question on the noise. So you say it in here, we try to keep the decibel is about 30 or a little bit more than 30.

So 30 is well below. Right now talking to you just without anything is in the 70 decibel level. When you're in our lobby, When they're shooting, it's about a 40 decibel level. It's very minimal, very low. We will continue to do everything we can to keep noise inside. OSHA, 85 decibels for eight hours. Someone shouldn't be exposed to 85 decibels for more than eight hours continuously. We are well below that. As far as the air also, we have to get a permit through the Air Quality Management District and they come out and inspect our facility, everything. So everything has to be approved prior to even opening and it's very well maintained.

So the caliber right now we allow is .357.

Well, it can shoot all the way up to a .50 AE handgun, but the cost of that ammunition, nobody does it. .308 rifle rated, a .30-06 armor-piercing cannot go through the steel, but we have a rubber trap that stops it long before it ever hits that. We'll be shooting what we... currently we see traditionally right now 22 32 380 9 millimeter 40 45 periodically 10 millimeter not too many people shoot above that level but the noise of a 357 magnum the reason why that's on here is that's a very loud hot round and you can't hear it on the outside. So did we permit the rifle to rain? We've never, we don't shoot rifles. So there are rifles that are chambered in a pistol caliber and we would allow somebody to shoot a rifle at that. But when you're shooting 44 feet, which is the maximum shooting distance in there because it'll be over the rubber trap, You're wasting money. I mean, that's not a challenging shot. I mean, you go out to an outdoor and go shoot 100 yards. That makes it worthwhile.

So you're not experiencing a lot of people do the rifle because knowing the rifle is way different from the . . .

Correct. So we won't allow rifle calibers to be shot, first of all. A pistol caliber in a rifle, it's kind of a waste because there's no challenge to it. if that makes sense. I can explain it better. When you shoot a handgun at 21 feet, your grouping is pretty few inches. When you shoot a rifle chambered in a handgun caliber at 21 feet, you're talking this big. There's no challenge to it because this is so much more accurate due to the length of the barrel.

I think that's all my question. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Any other questions from the commissioners? Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

We are now going to open the public hearing, and I believe we have some requests to speak.

Yes, we have four. I'll start with Michael Nisko.

Hi. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Dr. Michael Nisko, and I've been a Fountain Valley resident since 1971. I'm a physician at UCI Health where I serve as the director of hospice and palliative care services. So just to give you some context is why I mention that. Throughout my career, I've spent many years evaluating organizations, operations, professionalism, and safety. And I've also trained at Elite CCW for quite some time and through that experience gotten to know Mike Duda. His previous service as the supervisor of the Orange County Sheriff CCW unit is reflected in the way Elite CCW is run. Professionalism, accountability, and safety are evident throughout the organization, as you can tell by him coming before you. I've consistently found it to be a place where responsible firearm ownership, sound judgment, compliance, California law, and respect for the community are the highest priorities. I also come to appreciate, Mike, his integrity, both of him and his son who works with him. runs the place with him, they both hold themselves to the highest standards. It's obvious that they genuinely care about doing things the right way, safety first. So based on my experience, both as a customer, lifelong family resident, I firmly believe Elite CCW has been a tremendous asset to our community, and I encourage you to please approve their application. Thank you.

Next we have Mr. Coghill.

Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to address. My name is Dennis Kogod. For about five years, I was a student at Elite CCW. Prior to being here, I'm a retired healthcare executive. I ran a publicly traded company, about $12 billion. It took care of the world's dialysis population. Every time I went into Elite, there's something very special about the place, and I don't know if you've had an opportunity to experience it. But it's one of those places when you go in as a customer, you think, I wonder what it would be like to be a part of this team because they have built this remarkable place where people just congregate and they talk about what's new and what's relevant and what's responsible, et cetera. About six months ago, I got the opportunity to go to work for Mike and Bailey part time. So there are kind of two aspects I wanted to address with you. Number one, I answer the phone a lot. And there is a need in the Fountain Valley area for a range that is open to the public. Because right now, if you're not a student of elite CCW getting your concealed carry permit, we don't take people to come in and openly shoot. so we as an organization and as a city are just leaking revenue dollars that end up going to Huntington Beach or Laguna Niguel and I think that's a significant factor as we consider this this application number two and something we haven't really talked about is what do people get when they go to elite CCW I think what we create are incredibly thoughtful and incredibly safety-minded gun owners that walk into that store. And I think that's something that should not be undervalued. I think there are a lot of places out here where you can go and you can fire a gun And they're just happy to have you come through. And there's really not a lot of regards to safe handling and responsibilities of firing and owning a handgun. What is so unique about Elite CCW, about Mike and Bailey and the rest of the team, is they're always teaching. And as a firearms owner myself for many, many years, and now having worked there, I've really come to appreciate that what they do at their very core is they take people and they teach them how to be responsible gun owners. Whether they ask for it or not, they talk to them about safety, not just at the range, but in their home, and keeping firearms that can't be accessible to children and people that shouldn't be around firearms. In approving this application, not only do I think it is good from a financial perspective, people are going to go fire guns somewhere. And I sleep better at night time now that they come to LEAP, and they get their training, and they are responsible. And that's the kind of firearms owners that I think we'd want to have. So I appreciate your consideration. Thank you.

Jack Felmbar?

Thank you, Commissioners. My name is Jack Bombar, and I'm a consultant to K-12 public schools. So I've had the privilege in the last 40 years to do business with almost every public school in Orange County, most in LA and Riverside. And I help schools with funding, grant funding, security funding. There's monies that are called cop dollars that come down to schools and they're told you need to fortify your sites, build fences, put cameras in, do all kinds of things. And so there are products out there that can actually stop bullet rounds from going through a standard school window. and how to demonstrate it. So I tried to find a firm that could help me. I need to bring in superintendents, facility managers, architects, to actually see a window get hammered, in this case, with a 9 millimeter round. And I called Mike, and I said, Mike, this is who I am. We would like to come and use your range. We need your classroom to teach people, and we need to actually go into the range safely and shoot glass and show how these windows work. And Mike helped me out. We did 13 presentations in 25. We've done two this year. The challenge has been space. So we've had Santa Ana, Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda. We've had all these school district people come. They bring their board members. They bring their facilities people. And I was limited on space. So I'd have a classroom that would take so many. And then in that four-lane shooting range, you know, we could get like eight people in there. And so with the new range and the new classroom and the new facilities, we're gonna have an opportunity to teach and show more. Because they're coming out with Kevlar panels now, like in classrooms where the windows go all the way to the bottom and they can be kicked out. So now they're trying to figure out a way to fortify those and they're coming up with Kevlar panels that can't be broken into but also you can't get a bullet round through it. So I am not affiliated with the family. I'm just a customer. It's in an entire different business. But this place has been a godsend for me. So I hope you approve their application. Thank you.

Josh Harris.

Hello, commissioners. Thank you. My name is Josh Harris. I'm a resident of Huntington Beach and a newer student to Elite CCW. I'm also a retired special education teacher and principal as well as a current practicing attorney. I'm also a California certified firearms instructor. I was so excited to find Elite CCW as a place to train and very excited that this young man named Bailey You've heard the saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Well, that is absolutely not true. This young man, Bailey, taught me something. After 20 years of shooting myself and being an instructor, I learned something from him. But when you go in there to Elite CCW, they are the epitome of safety and professionalism. And as Dennis said, it just feels warm and like a family in there. So having this opportunity to expand that business is wonderful for our customers here and also for the Fountain Valley community. Thank you so much.

That's all the requests I have to speak.

Are there any requests on Zoom? I will now close the public hearing. Any further discussion with commissioners? Hearing none, can I get a motion? I'll go ahead and second. So we have a motion from Commissioner Vu, a second from Commissioner Huebner. Roll call vote, please.

Sure. Commissioner Vu?

Yes.

Commissioner Escona?

Yes.

Commissioner James? Yes. Chair Huebner? Yes. Motion passes 4-0.

Congratulations. Thank you. Moving on, any new business?

No, ma'am.

Any staff comments?

Not at this time.

Any remaining comments from the commission? All right. I will now adjourn the regular plan. I will now adjourn the Planning Commission meeting. Our next regular meeting is scheduled for August 12th, 2026 at 6 o'clock p.m. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.