City Code Change Needed Before Archery Range Can Open

St. Peters is planning to open an archery range at Lakeside 370 Park later this spring, but there won't be much to do until a city code gets changed.

During the Board of Aldermen's work session on April 11, St. Peters Police Chief Tom Bishop presented a proposed change. Bishop proposed that the city change City Code Section 210.205 to allow the archery range to open.

As it stands now, Section 210.205 reads:

"Any person within the limits of this City who shall discharge any BB gun which expels a projectile by means of a spring, air or any other means, paintball gun or air gun or shall shoot any pebble, bullet, slug, arrow or other substance by means of a sling, crossbow, rubber band or bow or any other means shall be deemed guilty of an ordinance violation."

That law would seriously lessen the fun of the archery ranger—an archery range with arrows isn't much of an archery range. 

The change presented by Bishop would be a quick fix that would help save the range. The change would reword the current law to allow for the projectile to be expelled at a city-authorized park.

During the work session, no board member objected to the proposed change. The board will vote on the change at the April 25 meeting. 

The range is expected to be built on the east end of the park in between the levee and a trail leading to the Sanford Levee, said Vicki Phillips, director of park operations.

The range will have 13 ground-level archer positions with targets between 10 yards and 70 yards—a distance rarely found in other public archery ranges. The range will also have 3D targets—targets that look like deer, Phillips said. 

In addition, there will be three elevated shooting platforms, one at 10 feet, one at 15 feet and one at 20 feet high. 

"We'll have duplicates of the most popular distances," Phillips said. 

Funding for the archery range comes from Proposition P, which St. Peters voters approved with 68 percent of the vote. About $100,000 is budgeted for the project.