By: Sarah Wojcik | Royal Oak Review | Published December 18, 2018

File photo



ROYAL OAK — A sizable showing of concerned residents attended the Dec. 13 Royal Oak Zoning Board of Appeals meeting for a public hearing regarding a home occupation variance to sell guns.

The board unanimously denied the request to conduct business at the applicant’s single-family residence on the grounds that the proposed use did not conform to the standards outlined in the city’s zoning ordinance.

Jason Odom, a resident of South Edgeworth Avenue and owner of Detroit City Armory LLC, requested the variance because local government consent is required to operate, as mandated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and he listed his home address on his federal firearms license application.

In order to pass, six of the seven board members would have had to cast affirmative votes, and many board members agreed that the request did not meet any of the criteria.

The zoning ordinance mandates that the applicant must demonstrate evidence of a hardship. Requirements of granting the variance include that the proposed use not alter the essential character of the area and that the hardship not be created by the applicant.

If granted, the use variance to sell federal firearms would have run with the property.

Odom said the issue was about a use variance, not about firearms.

He said he did not plan to open a gun shop in his home; most of his business, he said, would be conducted online or at gun shows. He estimated that he would conduct one or two firearm transfers per month and would not keep any retail stock at the residence.

“My hopes would be to have this side job to produce some additional income,” Odom said.

He added that he has a full-time job but wanted to supplement the income he lost from his previous job.

“My hardship is if I were forced to buy a brick-and-mortar store,” he said. “If I’m not granted this, I’m not allowed to have my license at all to conduct business.”

Rosemary Couture, speaking on behalf of approximately 35 residents in the surrounding neighborhood who met at the city’s senior center Dec. 4, outlined a list of reasons to deny Odom’s request.

Some of the reasons included that the request would change the character of the neighborhood, increase traffic, be difficult to monitor for compliance, increase crime, decrease property values, and give Royal Oak the reputation of being friendly to residential firearms dealers.

Approximately a dozen residents spoke in favor of denying the variance, citing similar concerns about traffic and safety.

Amy Craig, Odom’s neighbor, voiced support for his request, although she expressed that “it’s going to be hard to get that passed tonight” on the grounds that “it is hard for him to show hardship.”

She said Odom has “displayed the utmost competency and respect” in regard to owning firearms, that she and her husband are responsible gun owners, and that her father was an amateur gunsmith.

“So many people have a fear of firearm ownership and firearms in general,” she said. “I think that sometimes people who want to make a living doing certain kinds of gunsmithing get a bad rap.”

Board member Alan Kroll moved to deny the request.

“I think this is really overblown tonight; however, you haven’t come close to giving us a hardship,” Kroll said. “We are not a board to decide emotionally. In my mind, you sell wedding cakes, and I tried to take guns out of this. Obviously, guns are a fairly explosive term these days, but you didn’t have a hardship to sell wedding cakes.”

He added that besides not demonstrating a hardship, he felt the variance would not be good for the neighborhood.

“I really try not to let mob rule,” Kroll said. “I kind of felt this right from the beginning.”

Board member Robert Muller agreed, saying that there was nothing unique about the single-family home in question that would meet the requirements of the city’s zoning ordinance.

“We did these zonings to protect single-family neighborhoods from having businesses in them, whatever they were, and that’s, to me, how I have to look at it,” he said.

Board member Leslie Anderson said that while she knows many gunsmiths who work legally from living in Montana and in the Upper Peninsula, receiving such a use variance is one of the most difficult zoning matters that comes before the board.

“You have to have more people vote for it to get it by, and also you can’t pick and choose the odd criteria,” she said. “Every single one has to work, and in this case, it just doesn’t work.”

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