Some Inver Grove Heights residents are accusing neighboring South St. Paul of acting unneighborly for allowing a gun range to expand near their homes.

South St. Paul City Council members approved a conditional use permit Monday allowing the South St. Paul Rod & Gun Club to add a firing shed.

The property on 600 Gun Club Road in the southeastern corner of the city is on the border of Inver Grove Heights — and residents there are fed up with the noise from the nearby club.

"It is extremely unneighborly to be pointing guns at your neighbors," said Joe McBride, a nearby Inver Grove Heights resident.

The gun club with more than 700 members has operated in the city since 1935. Over the years, the club has built and heightened berms surrounding the range. Last year, the city approved a conditional use permit for the club to make improvements including a concrete structure that would keep bullets from landing outside the range.

The city later found out that the club did not build the structure and had instead been using a semitrailer truck as a makeshift structure, which the city had not approved. The club came before the council Monday to ask for permission to replace the trailer with a firing shed and a system of baffles around the range.

The mayor of Inver Grove Heights reached out to the city with his concerns about the gun range. In a letter, Mayor George Tourville asked that South St. Paul consider that all firing of weapons be pointed away from the public facilities and that no shooting of automatic or semiautomatic weapons be permitted.

Eric Carlson, Inver Grove Heights parks and recreation director, said at the meeting, "What would you expect us to do if the roles were reversed?" In a letter to South St. Paul, Carlson said he did not object to the expansion as long as there would be no aiming of firearms near the public facilities.

The city approved the permit in a 5-2 vote, with council members Marilyn Rothecker and Dan Niederkorn opposed.

Beatrice Dupuy • 612-673-1707