The Tioga Sports Park Association has officially abandoned its strategy to build a gun range on 220 acres of Coos County forestland about nine miles north of Bandon.

But whether it has thrown in the towel for good remains to be seen.

The development came about late last week after Coos County Legal Counsel David Koch received an e-mail from Tioga's attorney, Andrew Stamp of Lake Oswego, containing this message from his client:

“Andy, (t)he Tioga Sports Park Board of Directors has unanimously voted to withdraw and start over,” wrote the group's president, Bob Main.

The e-mail, plus a follow-up telephone call from Stamp to Koch the afternoon of March 9, triggered county officials to refund fees Tioga remitted for a long-awaited second public hearing on the matter.

On Wednesday, Main, who also is Coos County's tax assessor, elaborated on what the e-mail meant.

“Start over? What does that mean? We at some point would expect to refile - when, we don't know yet,” he said.

It was clear the group's preferred location remains the Whisky Run site just north of Bandon.

“We hope to do something positive for the community ... at the same location, hopefully,” Main said.

However, he later said it was possible the group wouldn't refile for a permit at all. He said the Tioga board would discuss its options and release an official statement concerning its intentions soon.

“We've got a lot of thinking to do before, if, we reapply,” he said. “At this point we are talking with our attorney about if, and when (to refile) and how many changes we will make.”

The news did not clear up matters for at least one member of the Quiet Forest Homeowners group, nearby landowners who formed in opposition to the shooting range.

“If by starting over they mean finding a location where they won't face a huge opposition - where it doesn't impact neighbors - that is something we could support,” said David Comden. “But if they intend to resubmit for this location, we will fight it until the end. This location will simply not go forward until we have exhausted all of our resources.”

Tioga ran into stiff opposition last September after the Coos County Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit to develop the park in a portion of the Coos County Forest. The plans included 20-rifle shooting corridors - each 1,000 yards long - pistol ranges, an archery field, a black powder course, a trap shooting range, a paintball course and an RV park.

But within a week of the planning commission's decision, county officials decided to rehear the case after several opponents to the project appealed the decision. Nearby landowners were frustrated with the decision and said they were never notified about the project despite the potential to greatly impact their day-to-day lives. The county planning department said it was only required to notify adjacent landowners who live within 750-feet of the parks boundaries. However, since no homeowners live within that zone, none of them was notified.

Neighbors were concerned about noise levels, how the shooting range would affect property values, and why the county would greenlight a shooting range in an area adjacent to what they believe is some of the choicest real estate in the county. The appeal, submitted by the Eugene law firm of Hutchinson, Cox, Coons, DuPriest, Orr & Sherlock argued the commission failed to take into consideration how stray shots, increased traffic on a narrow, winding road and increased chances of fire would impact the area and why the commission failed to coordinate with numerous public agencies.

Meanwhile, proponents of the project say there is a great demand for a gun range and that unregulated target shooting takes place in the forest now. A controlled shooting range, they said, would be safer. In addition, noise concerns would be addressed with noise abatement techniques. The gun range would be open to the general public as well as for police training and hunter education courses - and possibly National Guard units.

While the March 9 e-mail signals the dissolution of the land use application, Koch said, a contract between the county and Tioga remains in effect, leaving Tioga with the option to tweak its plan and simply reapply for a permit at the same location. In exchange for the use of the land, the county would receive up to 10 percent of the Sports Park's gross revenue each year. The agreement has a 100-year term, and is subject to review by the Coos County Board of Commissioners every 10 years.

If Tioga files for a new permit, it would go before the Planning Commission for a public hearing once again, Koch said, and notices would be sent out to numerous neighbors.

“They can refile a new application at anytime in the future for that location, or any other location if an agreement is reached on another location,” Koch said.

Members of Quiet Forest Homeowners, many of whom say they are gun owners themselves, have offered to divert money away from a potential legal fight, and into investing with Tioga at one of several alternate sites it has found. However, Main said Wednesday the alternate sites are not suitable because they are closer to homes than the proposed Tioga Sports Park.

Main said the primary reason for withdrawing the application for the land use permit was so that it could change the wording of a proposed RV park contained within the original plan.

“We don't anticipate having what is commonly known as an RV park - similar to other RV parks,” Main said. “RV park to some means a full blown park, with hookups, with sewer and water and we just thought it would be well contained - a few people overnight. We are not going into competition with big RV parks.”