Redondo Beach wants to build $17 million police shooting range to replace 1950s open air site

Redondo Beach wants to build a new military-level shooting range for its police department, but the city can’t afford it right now.

The City Council at its meeting this week directed staff to keep working on designs for the new range, explore potential funding sources and be prepared to apply next year for a federal grant that would bolster the facility that would best fit the city’s law enforcement agency.

The panel voted 3-2 to move forward with the plan, with Councilmembers Todd Loewenstein and Nils Nehrenheim dissenting. City staff will now prepare to apply for a 2025 grant cycle and look for other ways to fund the facility.

Currently, the Police Department trains at its 1950s-era, open-air range on the corner of Beryl Street and Flagler Lane, near the Redondo Beach Dog Park and across the street from Torrance’s Towers Elementary School. It also doubles as a maintenance yard for the city’s public works department.

An enclosed facility would reduce noise, according to a staff report, and therefore lessen calls from the community concerned about hearing gunfire.

About 15 years ago, for example, a state agency investigated complaints from nearby residents about bullet fragments straying into their neighborhood and onto Towers Elementary grounds.

Redondo started planning for a new range in 2017, according to city staff, and began working on a design in earnest early last year. The existing one, which opened in the 1950s and has remained an open field, has only undergone minor operational improvements since then.

The Los Angeles United States Air Force Base wants to partner with the city to build the range, which would make it a joint space, and also provide a $12 million grant to make it happen. The entire thing would cost $17.2 million, and Redondo Beach would pay $5.2 million of that.

“The challenge is, we don’t have $5 million available and I don’t foresee us having $5 million available” in the near future, city manager Mike Witzansky said at the Tuesday meeting.

Redondo Beach currently has about $545,000 in its capital improvement project budget that could go toward the shooting range, according to a staff report.

The Air Force, meanwhile, needs a South Bay-local training range, Mia Walsh, a commander at the L.A. Air Force Base, or Space Force, said Tuesday, as there aren’t nearby facilities with enough capacity and folks often have to travel up to 75 miles away from the base in El Segundo to train.

But the city is looking at other, smaller scale options, too.

An all-modular range with four lanes would cost the city $5.4 million; modular structures with even lanes would cost $6.5 million.

Police Chief Joe Hoffman said at the Tuesday meeting that the full-scale, brick and mortar range would allow his force more real-life training.

There would be a judgement and live fire training simulator for use-of-force situations, the staff report reads, critical incident training, de-escalation, decision support training, traditional tactical judgment training and more.

Hoffman prefers the military partnership, he said, because Redondo’s 100 officers would have fewer limitations training at an enclosed site and be able to recreate scenarios they may experience during a service call, rather than just shooting at targets.

An updated facility would allow police personnel to train in all weapons systems at all hours of the day, per the staff report, without impacting the surrounding community.

Any time the department plans to train at the range, Hoffman said, they notify the community ahead to address potential complaints ahead of time. On weekdays, training happens from 3 to 8 p.m. and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays; never after 9 p.m. on any day, on Sundays, or holidays.

Councilmember Todd Loewenstein on Tuesday suggested applying for bonds to get the project done, which the city could pay back over several years, noting that the city’s existing funds might be better spent on other improvements.

‘We have a lot of needs right now,” Loewenstein said. “Long term, I think it’s a great project” but right now, “$5 million is a heavy lift for our facility.”

Councilmember Paige Kaluderovic, however, said that if the city may end up spending that many millions of its own money anyway, it should take advantage of the grant opportunity.

“We do have a lot of facilities that need attention, but this is the only one that we have a grant opportunity with,” Kaluderovic said.

The military option, meanwhile, must meet federal requirements for a small-arms shooting range, according to a staff report, like having at least seven five-foot wide lanes, steel floors, ballistic side and downrange walls and specific dust and exhaust collection systems. It would also include classrooms

Other local law enforcement agencies could benefit from the range, too, the staff report said.

Torrance City Councilmember Bridget Lewis, who is the manager of homeland security at the Port of Long Beach, said that officers at her workplace would also benefit from the local range, noting that having to travel across counties for training leaves them exhausted upon returning for work.

But a new facility, whatever shape it takes, won’t be in the works until at least next year.