CRANBERRY TWP — Dave Gemperle knows there aren’t many options for gun owners when it comes to shooting ranges, which is why he wants to build a complex here.

Gemperle, 56, has taken his plans before the township planning commission and will again do so on Monday.

Preliminary plans call for a $14 million, 173,000-square-foot complex to be built on nearly 23 acres on the west side of Route 19, near the township’s Park Fire Station. In comparison, the project will be nearly as large as the proposed UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex going in along Route 228.

That project is expected to be around 180,000-square-feet with a cost of more than $70 million.

According to Gemperle, his business would be more of an academy of sorts with classes and lessons. A certified training counselor with the National Rifle Association, Gemperle said he plans on teaching more than 50 classes per month.

Called the Ellwand Shooting Sports Academy, the facility will include an indoor shooting complex in the basement. It also will include an outdoor archery section as well as retail space, classrooms, eating space and other amenities.

Gemperle said his proposed facility will have 61 shooting lanes for customers as well as 70 lanes for archery. There will be different lanes for small, medium and long-range guns.

The complex also will have materials inside on the walls that will help dampen the sound of gunfire both inside and outside.

For his part, Gemperle is ecstatic at the thought of opening his range if only for the fact that he’s done his research and realized the demand for such a business.

“In doing the homework, we were told that if you had a million people living within a 35-mile radius, that you’d be profitable on day one of the business,” he said. “We have 3 million people within 35 miles.”

The prospective business owner also said he, along with two other co-founders, traveled to dozens of firing ranges across the country to see how they do business.

The co-founders of the academy include Rick Everly of Butler and Fritz Baehr, an architect from Allegheny County who’s designing the project.

Gemperle, who is a pilot for FedEx, said he’s been around firearms his entire life, so much so that he runs seminars to certify NRA instructors.

He estimates he’s certified at least 250 gun owners in the past eight years.

The township resident added that the closest range is in West Mifflin in the southern portion of Allegheny County. He noted that range only has 16 lanes and is often booked solid on the weekends.

Gemperle said he’s been doing his homework for his business. That included researching a similar project proposed several years ago in Jackson Township that never was developed because of disagreements with residents and eventual court proceedings.

Gemperle called the failed Jackson Township project a “circus atmosphere” and vowed his project wouldn’t face the same fate.

“With all the things that go into concerns with building a safe facility, we never imagined all the details that would go into it,” he said. “But we had already done our homework and knew what to expect. Cranberry’s rules are pretty black and white.”

Gemperle is working intently with township officials to make sure everything is in order. As of now, he hopes to have the facility open next year.

“We’re trying hard not to cause any ripples,” he said.

Ron Henshaw, Cranberry’s director of community development, said the planning commission is still reviewing the project but that it likely will have a recommendation ready next week.

He said so far he hasn’t heard any negative feedback concerning the proposed plan.

“No one showed up at the first planning advisory meeting, but maybe they hadn’t heard of it yet,” he said. “Either way, we haven’t heard any complaints at the moment.”

The planning advisory commission will discuss the project at its meeting Monday, which starts at 5:30 p.m. in the municipal center on Rochester Road.