The Mishawaka Common Council has unanimously approved plans for a new indoor shooting range near the U.S. 20 bypass and Bremen Highway.
The 8-0 vote clears the way for Midwest Shooting Center to build a more than 13,000-square-foot facility on the city’s south side. Council members acknowledged the concerns of nearby residents but said the ordinance focused only on land use, not traffic or road safety.
Elmwood Avenue resident Doug Grall said his neighborhood has already felt the effects of commercial growth.
“Every time a business goes in, we get more traffic, more problems… more trash,” Grall said.
He added that the area’s original development plan, or PUD, was supposed to keep residential and commercial traffic separate.
“The original PUD called for complete isolation of the residential from the commercial and that all traffic would enter from the highway. That was not possible,” he said.
Grall’s neighbor Steve Fralish, who surveyed residents on Elmwood Avenue, said the community’s frustration isn’t with the shooting range itself but with what’s happening on their street.
“The issue is traffic, and noise, and speeding, and swearing,” Fralish said. “It’s not how nice the shooting range is… how quiet it will be. That is not the issue. The issue is road closure.”
Council members said traffic concerns should be brought through separate channels with city and county officials. The range project will move forward as approved.
