Application withdrawn for Bloomingdale gun range

It's unclear whether a proposed shooting sports facility will open in Bloomingdale after the man behind the project withdrew his application with the village.

Bloomingdale officials say Julian Perez notified them late last week that he was withdrawing his request to convert a vacant building at 7 N. Circle Ave. into a facility with two pistol ranges, a rifle range and a private range. The facility would have been called The Range Bloomingdale.

"The Range has packed up their bags and went home," said J. Thomas Brice, Bloomingdale's plan commission chairman.

Perez didn't provide a reason for the withdrawal in his brief email to the village, officials said. They say they don't know what Perez plans to do now.

Attempts to contact Perez on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

The withdrawal came more than a month after the plan commission recommended denial of the project. The plan was supposed to go to the village board for a final decision.

Plan commissioners made their recommendation after neighbors urged the village to reject the project because they don't want a gun range close to their homes. The neighbors said putting a gun range inside the former sheet metal fabricating building would create traffic, noise and other problems.

Tony Halachoulis, who lives near the site, said he's happy Perez withdrew his application.

"Our neighborhood will be peaceful," he said. "We won't have the traffic problems that we were going to have the noise issues we were going to have."

Halachoulis said he hopes Perez finds another location in Bloomingdale for The Range "that's more suitable."

"I'd like to see it still open in Bloomingdale," Halachoulis said. "I will be its first customer when it opens."