Planning Board Votes to Advertise New Firearms Zoning Bylaw for Town Meeting

NORTH ATTLEBORO — March 21, 2022 — North Attleborough Planning Board advances firearms business zoning rules with April public hearing set. The board voted unanimously Monday to advertise a proposed bylaw that would for the first time require special permits for firearms retailers, gunsmiths, and shooting ranges in North Attleborough, with the measures headed toward an April 13 public hearing and a spring Town Meeting vote. Under the draft rules, outdoor commercial shooting ranges would be restricted to the IA industrial zone near Belcher Street only — an area described as roughly 90 percent landfill with no adjacent residences — while indoor ranges would be allowed by special permit in most commercial and industrial zones. Both firearms retail and shooting ranges would be banned from the Town Center District, responding to a concern raised by the police chief about gun shops operating near downtown businesses frequented by children. The planner noted that under current zoning, a shooting range can open as a commercial recreation use without any Planning Board review whatsoever: "If somebody wants a shooting range, they can come in, they can put it in — you don't even get to look at it."