Laserfiche WebLink
Honorable Mayor/President and City Council Members/EDA Members <br />January 22, 2018 <br />Page 5 <br />large. In comparison, the City's authority to approve or deny this particular development relate to <br />its particularized authority to regulate the development of land, to enter into development <br />agreements, and to require reasonable conditions on such developments. <br />Further, because the EDA is the owner of this Property, it can make a decision on whether or not <br />to sell the Property based on what the proposed buyer seeks to do with the Property. If the City, <br />or the EDA, determines that they do not wish to support a firing range, then the EDA may choose <br />not to sell the property. Those decisions, and the corresponding action, are not akin to regulation. <br />Alternatively, the EDA can require the Developer to enter into an agreement whereby the parties <br />enter into whatever terms the EDA deems necessary to facilitate the sale, such as a promise not to <br />operate a firing range, should that be the desire. 13 Lastly, the EDA may be able to impose <br />restrictive covenants on the Property which would similarly limit the future uses which may be <br />undertaken. In these scenarios, the City or EDA are not regulating activity; they are simply <br />choosing which terms they are willing to engage in a business transaction. <br />V. Summary <br />To summarize, the City's ability to regulate firearms is limited due to a patchwork of state laws. <br />Any proposed regulation should be carefully crafted to ensure that it fits within the scope of <br />authority reserved for local government. However, in the scope of the ongoing discussion <br />surrounding the potential development of a firing range within the City, the EDA, as the property <br />owner, likely has additional leverage to consider the suitability of this type of development. As <br />the City looks beyond the current development proposal, it would also likely be beneficial to <br />undertake a review of the City's current ordinances related to firearms, and determine if any <br />changes are required or desired by the Council. <br />13 In order to hold future buyers to these terms, such agreement should be carefully crafted, and should be recorded <br />against the Property so that future buyers are put on notice of any ongoing use restrictions. It may also be possible to <br />accomplish this through the issuance of a conditional warranty deed with a right of reverter, whereby the property <br />would revert to EDA ownership if a future owner used the property in a manner that was prohibited. <br />514948v2 AMB MU205-46 <br />