ADAMS TWP — Planning commissioners on Wednesday gave site plan approval for a new shooting academy proposed for Route 228 and Scharberry Lane and tentative approval to the Brookhaven proposed residential development.

In the past, residents and officials have raised concerns about possible noise from the proposed shooting academy.

Company representatives attempted to put those concerns to rest at the commissioners meeting.

The Ellwand Shooting Sports Academy is a 6.97 acre plan that will feature a wide variety of shooting ranges including a 200-yard underground range, tactical training ranges for law enforcement, a shotgun bay, and archery and BB gun ranges as well.

Dave Gemperle, Ellwand Shooting Sports Academy president, told commissioners the facility will be state of the art with dense, high-tech panels designed to trap sound. The panels would be mounted throughout the ranges to minimize sound, he said.

What is left of the sound in the underground range, he said, also will have to travel through steel and rubber bullet traps, acoustic tiles, concrete and then through dirt and pavement.

For the two ranges above ground, the one used by law enforcement for tactical training will feature triple the noise absorbing panels, while the second, a shotgun range, will be a large room with only one shooter permitted at a time. This room will also feature two layers of plexiglass that is expected to trap any sound not absorbed in the large room.

Gemperle said he and others from the company have met with township police officials to discuss the plan and the possibility of them using the range for training.

Commissioners voted to approve the site plan.

Commissioners also gave tentative approval to the Brookhaven plan, a 34-lot housing development that has received resident pushback in the past for its disturbance of slopes.

Representatives for the developer said it meets township ordinances, though residents again raised concerns that the plan would develop too much of the properties' slopes and potentially lead to unsafe homes.

Resident Jennifer McAfee said she knows people with homes on slopes that have experienced damage to the walls and floors and have water and mold damage. She said she was concerned the same situation could happen here.

“You're putting kids inside these homes,” McAfee said. “Let's make sure everything's safe.”

Commissioners, who will consider a change to the slope ordinance later this month, said their proposed changes could not be considered for this plan.