After years of searching for and finally finding a suitable location, the collaboration between Clear Creek and Gilpin counties on a public sport shooting park is about to come to fruition.

The new park with a clubhouse and forty-five lanes is in the final phases of design, and bids for construction contracts are being readied for release. Construction of the park is expected to be completed this summer, with an opening date in 2024. Once the park is operational, the US Forest Service will implement a set of limited shooting closures in national forests north of I-70 in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties.

Efforts to balance the needs of recreation sport shooters with the safety of a growing population in areas along the Front Range goes back to 2014, when Gilpin County joined with the US Forest Service (USFS), Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), and Clear Creek, Boulder, and Larimer counties to form the Northern Front Range Recreational Sport Shooting Management Partnership (NFRRSSMP).

The purpose of the partnership was to develop safe, responsible, and accessible recreational shooting opportunities while addressing conflicts near residential areas and with other recreational users such as fishermen, hikers, campers, climbers, mountain bikers and tourists in national forests along the Front Range. The USFS did not want to unilaterally close unsuitable areas in the national forests to sport shooting without a viable alternative because the sport shooters would just move on to another forest and the risks of injuries from stray bullets or accidental wildfire ignitions would still exist.

Members of NFRRSSMP evaluated multiple locations for public shooting ranges between 2015 and 2018, including land along the Central City Parkway and lower Hwy 119 south of Black Hawk, but were unsuccessful in finding a property that would satisfy the Forest Service requirements. In 2018, Clear Creek offered land that they had owned since 1974 and had leased to a private sport shooting club since 1977. The land was already being used as a shooting range and is easily accessible from I-70 at the 238 Fall River Road exit.

Gilpin County entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in October of 2018 with the USFS, CPW, and Clear ( Creek County to develop the site. In 2019, the USFS issued a decision that the development of the project would satisfy their criteria for closing limited public lands in both counties as unsuitable for recreational sport shooting.

In the decision by USFS Forest Supervisor Monte Williams, he wrote that “The Forest’s proposal and alternatives analyzed herein do not infringe on an individual’s right to keep and bear arms; rather, it delineates where dispersed recreational sport shooting is unsuitable in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests.”

Phase I of the project, including design of the new facility and approval from government entities was done during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. In 2022 the CPW awarded Clear Creek and Gilpin Counties an $860,000 grant for Phase II construction of the sport shooting park. Gilpin committed $400,000 to the project, or about 28% of the projected Phase II costs. Besides $100,000, Clear Creek committed to providing the land and management of the project with County staff.

The funds that Gilpin used came from a use fee that Gilpin collected from the Frei Quarry and a portion of their Colorado Lottery proceeds which were specifically directed towards conservation and recreation per Colorado Revised Statute 29-21-101Conservation Trust Fund).

The Phase II construction schedule will include remediation of the site, well and septic, building permits, construction of the clubhouse, shooting lanes, and parking. The clubhouse will include restrooms, a classroom, a retail area, and an office. The park will be able to offer hunter and personal safety classes along with competitive leagues for youth, adults, and seniors.

Clear Creek Shooting Park Project Manager Lisa Leben, will be applying for another grant with CPW on April 6 for $225,000 to help with completing the Phase II construction. Leben said that they might have to move some items, like paving the parking lot, to Phase III if they don’t have sufficient funding to complete the entire project. They do plan to build the clubhouse and the basic elements necessary to open the range and obtain the closures on the U.S. Forest Lands. Leben wrote, “GIS Director Matt Taylor and I have been working on this 10-plus years and it will be a big achievement when the new facility finally opens.”

Clear Creek County has a webpage on the project called Clear Creek Shooting Park Projects and are updating it with the status of Phase II milestones. From Strategic and Community Planning, click through Recreation and Recreational Sport Shooting. The Gilpin County website also has a webpage on the project and has an interactive map of the final proposed closures that the Forest Service developed as part of their MOU responsibilities. It is accessed from the Gilpin Community Development web page under Special Projects.