Politics & Government

Gun Shop Appeal To Be Heard By Board of Supervisors

The conditional use permit and variance for Valley Guns and Ammo was appealed by the San Lorenzo Village Homes Association in December.

The decision to approve or disapprove a gun shop opening in San Lorenzo now lies with the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

At the Dec. 14 West County Board of Zoning meeting, board members voted 4-1 to at the former store, located at 488 Lewelling Blvd.

On Dec. 22, the submitted an appeal.

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Alameda County Community Development Agency Planner Richard Tarbell said it is now up to the Board of Supervisors to approve or disapprove the appeal. However, an exact date as to when they will do has yet to be made. Tarbell said it may likely be sometime in February.

"We feel that the variance was granted incorrectly," said Kathy Martins, interim administrator of the SLVHA.

Find out what's happening in Castro Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to Tarbell, the variance was for the intended gun shop being located less than 500 feet from two residentially-zoned districts.

"It was measured from the back of the building to the residences," he said. "The 500 feet was intended to be measured as the crow flies."

The measurement from the "premises" — the building's back wall — to the property line of the residentially-zoned districts was around 446 feet Tarbell said. The districts included Paseo Del Rio and Albion Avenue. However, the intended gun shop would fall more than 500 feet from the neighboring businesses, schools and other outlets that sell firearms.

In the appeal letter [posted as a PDF to the right of the article], the SLVHA says board memeber Jeff Moore "erroneously interpreted and misapplied the determining factors that need to be considered when granting a variance" along with the conditional use permit.

The Appeal, the Applicant and the Community

During previous meetings, such as However, Martins said that all but one of the supporters lives outside of San Lorenzo. She said the mother of that one supporter owns the building where Valley Guns and Ammo is expected to open.

Martins said that among 44 phone calls made to the SLVHA regarding the gun shop opening, only three were in favor of it. She also said the SLVHA received 30 emails opposing the shop while one supported it.

The SLVHA appeal included several reasons, such as Moore arguing that the "500 foot rule was subject to interpretation" and issuing the variance to the applicant, who he felt will act professionally in running the gun shop, rather than to the property itself.

The appeal also focused on the application itself for the permit and variance, which only included the name of one of the gun shop's three partners: Steven Nobriga.

Nobriga told Patch that county planners helping them formulate the application told them only one person needed to sign for the application. Therefore, he left off the names of his other business partners, John Teixeira and Gary Gamaza.

Teixeira is known as the owner of the former Castro Valley Gun Shop on Redwood Road, which opened in the 1970s. In 2009, he decided to retire and sold the shop to gun store.

"Seventy percent of [Valley Guns and Ammo] will be made up of repeat customers from John's old shop that closed," Nobriga said.

The three want to get back into business simply because they miss it.

"We want something to do; we want somewhere to go and offer services to family, friends and the community," Nobriga said. "Once we open up, it'll be a good thing for all of us — including the patrons that visit."

Nobriga expressed frustration with the county and the slow process to get applications approved.

"All of this is costing time and costing money," Nobriga said. "We've been paying rent since April."

Initially, he had hoped to get through the approval process before the holidays were over. He said he looks forward to this all coming to an end and remains hopeful that the supervisors will vote in favor of the gun shop.

"We were told it'd take two to three months to get approved," he said. "It's taken 11 months."


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