There isn’t just one reason the Coe Shooting Center can’t be built on Tom Coe’s industrial-zoned property, Calaveras County planners said Tuesday. Staff had three findings for the Board of Supervisors to approve in granting six appeals to the center’s construction.

The first finding could be key in any future discussions: Even if, as the Planning Commission determined, a shooting center can be a permitted use – that is, allowed without any additional permits – expanding the allowable uses in a zone would require environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Staff also presented correspondence from former planning director George White that he had not given direction on the project (something Coe and project planner Dave Tanner insist was given), and found that a shooting center was not a permitted use in the existing zoning.