The Crook County Planning Commission conditionally approved a trap-shooting complex Wednesday night that will be built by the Bend Trap Club on a 633-acre site in Crook County off George Millican Road.

The planning commission’s OK clears the way for the 200-member trap club to move from its 40-acre site off Brosterhous Road in Bend and build a facility large enough to host regional shooting events.

The planning commission approved the trap-club complex with a vote of 4-1, with Commissioner Kim Kambak voting against it. Planning Commissioners Arleen Curths and Mark Severson were both absent.

The trap club plans to build 26 trap fields, approximately 243 campsites, yurts, a sporting clay course, an 84-space parking lot, a firearms-training facility, a caretaker’s residence and a 3,800-square-foot clubhouse, according to documents submitted to the Crook County Planning Department. The trap club is negotiating to buy the land, which is owned by Crook County.

The site is zoned as exclusive farm use and the trap club needed a conditional-use permit to build.

The area is also considered deer and antelope winter range, according to the staff report.

The planning commission placed 10 conditions on the trap-shoot complex.

Some of the conditions came from mitigation strategies proposed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), which raised concerns that the development could lead to habitat loss and disturb wildlife in the area, according to a letter submitted by ODFW district wildlife biologist Brian Ferry.

Kambak suggested two additional restrictions, but neither were approved. One would have limited the days of operation during the winter from Thursday to Sunday. She also suggested reducing the number of campsites, saying the club might compete with county-owned campgrounds.

”In essence, it’s becoming its own little destination site,” Kambak said.

Commission Chairman Jerry Brummer said the way he understood it, the trap club was building a large number of campsites to accommodate people during bigger shooting events held four to five times a year. He said he believed those would be the only times the campground would be full, according to the trap club’s plans.

”That ground in that area became committed to recreational use when all the ATV use came to the area,” Brummer said.

Among the 10 conditions the planning commission imposed, the trap club is not allowed to build cabins, which it originally proposed. Although it can erect 10 yurts.

Also, the trap club must build its campsites in clusters; can not install water and sewer facilities for lodging sites; has to relocate its firearms-training facility to the northern portion of the property; and has to move its sporting clay range to the northern end during winter months.

The planning commission said the trap club can be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for sponsored events, with regular shooting allowed during daylight hours, seven days a week.

In addition, the planning commission restricted the trap club from providing additional Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) trails on its property and from extending OHV trails adjacent to the property.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) established the Millican Valley OHV Trail system, a portion of which abuts the southern portion of the 633-acre parcel. The Millican Plateau Area adjacent to the trap club site is one of the more heavily used areas within the trail system because it is open year-round, said Greg Currie, an outdoor recreation planner with the Prineville district of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In its initial application, the trap club proposed allowing its members and guests to access the designated OHV system from the property. As part of that proposal, the trap club said in its application that rules ”will limit access to the adjacent OHV system via one or two of the existing roads through the site that currently connect to the OHV system.”

It’s unclear from the planning commission’s condition if OHV use will be allowed on the trap club property at all.

Currie said the trap club’s development would likely not affect OHV use on the nearby BLM-managed trail system, though the BLM has plans to expand the trail system about three miles north in the future. Currie wasn’t sure when that would happen or how the trails would be configured with the trap-shoot complex in place.

Ernestine Bousquet can be reached at 541-504-2336 or at ebousquet@bendbulletin.com.