CINCINNATI — For over five years, residents in multiple Cincinnati neighborhoods have pushed Hamilton County officials to relocate a gun range used by Cincinnati police officers away from their communities.
Residents in Lincoln Heights, Woodlawn and Evendale have all spoken out, pushing to move what some said sounded like a "war zone" away from neighborhoods filled with families and children.
Those residents have been hearing the sound of gunfire from their front doorsteps almost every day since 1947; on Friday, the county took one more step toward rectifying the issue as it held a groundbreaking for a new safety complex much further away, at 9500 East Miami River Road in Colerain Township.
The new home "will not only enhance public safety, but it strategically relocates CPD's gun range from its current location in Evendale, near Lincoln Heights and Woodlawn, to a more secluded environment in a rural part of the county," says a press release from county officials about the groundbreaking ceremony.
WCPO has reported on residents' concerns about the gun range since 2019. Over the years since, residents expressed worry about the adverse effects the gun range has had on youth living in the area, the trauma it causes the communities and physical health impacts from the decibel level of the gunfire.
"Probably 8 o'clock in the morning, you hear all kinds of guns. We have seven kids, so we have to get up in the morning," said Brent Williams, homeowner in Evandale."I feel like it's a relief because throughout the days it's like, you know gunshots, and some people who are new in the neighborhood, they think it's like gunshots from game violence or whatever have you."
For years, the county heard those concerns but grappled with the financial cost of moving the gun range; in 2019, it was estimated that building a new outdoor shooting range would cost $4.6 million while building a new indoor one would run $9.7 million.
After learning those price tags, county officials asked instead for a study to be done on ways to reduce the sound of the existing range. That study was released in 2020 and it showed costs varied for soundproofing options — but the cheapest option was to plant more trees at a starting cost of $25,000. The most expensive option the report presented was to enclose the current range in a full shelter, which was estimated to cost up to $3 million.
Ultimately, it took the COVID-19 pandemic to solve the problem.
In 2023, Hamilton County announced it planned to put $15 million worth of federal funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 toward solving the problem. In addition to that, the federal government offered to contribute $4 million, while the City of Cincinnati committed $2 million toward a new gun range.
The total cost for the Hamilton County Regional Safety Complex is $31.65 million. Hamilton County Commissioners provided $20.4 million, $10.4 million from Hamilton County American Rescue Plan Act, $10 million from Hamilton County General Fund, $4.25 million from the City of Cincinnati, Federal 2023 Economic Development Initiative Community Project Funding Grants sponsored by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown committed $4 million and the state of Ohio (HB33-2024-106) provided $3 million for the project.
"We had meeting after meeting after meeting about this, and finally got the stack together with the federal government, state government, the county, the city of Cincinnati, all coming together collaboratively to say, Yes, this is an investment, we want to make this is a top priority for all of us. And here we are," Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus said.
It's unclear what will happen to the current gun range after the new one is built. In 2019, leaders in Lincoln Heights and Woodlawn said the communities had no plans to purchase the property because it was likely to be a brownfield zone in need of costly remediation.
Renee Mahaffey-Harris, president and CEO at the Center for Closing the Health Gap, told WCPO last year there are reasonable concerns that lead from the gun range could be in the soil of the property.
The first phase of construction is expected to last one year and will include the construction of a temporary gun range for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department. The new Safety Complex Building, which includes 60 total 100-yard firing lines and six 300-yard firing lines is expected to be completed by 2026.
At that time, the soil at the property had not been tested to determine whether this was the case.
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