Barb Kleppick, whose property borders the site of a proposed shooting range, voices her concerns about noise during the planning commission meeting Monday at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center. Plans for an outdoor archery range at the site were dropped.

CRANBERRY TWP — The man who wants to build a shooting range told the township planning commission Monday night that he's nixing plans to include an archery range in the project.

Dave Gemperle wants to open the Ellwand Shooting Sports Academy on 22 acres along Route 19 near the Park fire station in the township. Preliminary plans call for the facility to be more than 173,000 square feet.

The shooting range will have several educational components to it with classes on gun safety and shooting.

At the planning meeting, Ron Henshaw, director of community development, said it was “probably a good idea at this stage” to remove plans for the archery range if only because officials were worried about noise coming off the property and impacting residents.

For now, all of the shooting ranges are proposed to be built underground and would likely include noise-dampening material to muffle the sound of gunshots.

Henshaw added that Gemperle can always build the archery range after the facility opens, although he'd have to take his plans back through the commission.

Commission members only briefly reviewed the project Monday. They will likely make a recommendation next week on whether to approve or deny the project, but the township supervisors have the final say on the matter.

“(The archery range) is really the only thing on the staff level that is really holding it back,” Henshaw said.

Only one resident spoke at the hearing. Barb Kleppick, whose property is next to the site of the proposed shooting range, said she's worried noise.

However, Henshaw reassured her that he's “fully satisfied” with the noise-dampening plan at the range.

The commission will discuss the matter at its meeting Monday.