A plan for an indoor shooting range in the former Kmart building in West St. Paul was shot down this week by city officials.

In a Monday work session meeting, the city council discussed the idea for what is being billed as the “Largest, Nicest and Safest Gun Range in the Midwest,” according to planning documents recently submitted to the city.

City Manager Ryan Schroeder said Tuesday that a zoning code amendment would be required to allow a shooting range as a permitted use or a conditional use — and that council members were not willing to verbally commit to either for the building.

Generally speaking, he said, the council did not think the location was a good fit.

“The commentary ranged from, ‘Nah, I don’t see it …’ to … ‘I don’t mind a gun range, but I don’t like that location for it.’ So it kind of ran the gamut,” Schroeder said.

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Dakota County celebrates 125th anniversary of Rock Island Swing Bridge Saturday The city’s “Renaissance Plan” for South Robert Street, which guides development along the 2.5-mile state road, calls for a mix of housing and retail at the site, Schroeder noted, “and a gun range doesn’t fit in that vision.”

Late last year, Sears Holdings Corp. closed the Big Kmart in Signal Hills Shopping Center along with 63 other stores across 28 states. Kmart anchored the shopping center since the mid-1990s.

The plan for a shooting range in the vacant 103,000-square-foot building was devised by Chris O’Keefe, a West St. Paul resident who said Tuesday that he was “very discouraged” by the council’s reaction Monday.

“I started laying out some numbers and it was like, ‘OK, thank you, Mr. O’Keefe.’ I was basically cut off,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, I went to the city council and they didn’t give me an opportunity to present or show them any numbers.”

O’Keefe said that it would cost more than $3.2 million to get the building rehabbed and the shooting range up and running and that he has been talking to several investors about backing him.

“They’re not on the hook yet,” O’Keefe, 54, said. “They don’t want to do anything until we get the OK.”

Despite admitting that prospect is looking unlikely, O’Keefe said he believes the plan could be something residents could get behind.

“I think it can happen and I think it can be good for the community,” he said. “I think if I get enough information out there and enough residents and business owners behind me, it could possibly go through.”

Jim Hartshorn, the city’s community development director, said others proposed different ideas for the vacant Kmart — and that zoning also got in the way before they fizzled out.

“Somebody had the idea of doing a go-kart track inside,” he said. “Another idea was a big putt-putt golf operation.”