This aerial photograph from Sept. 5, 2015, shows 1021 East 31st St., one of two possible locations for a proposed shooting range and gun shop.

If there’s going to be a new gun range and shop in Lawrence, it should go in a mostly industrial area off 31st Street, rather than a high-density site near 23rd and Louisiana streets, the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission decided Monday.

Planning commissioners voted 8-0 to express their preference that a gun range proposed by Lawrence businessman Rick Sells go into the property at 1021 E. 31st St. over his alternative location, The Malls shopping center. The commission also voted to approve rezoning the property off 31st Street to allow for the gun range — a measure commissioners rejected when they first saw an application for the business in November.

“I’m within the guidelines of being able to do it,” Sells said before the commission voted. “But, yet, I keep getting turned away or turned away or getting voted down. I don’t want to be the bad guy, and I don’t want to be the bully, but I don’t want to be bullied myself.”

Sells’ proposal was first rejected after the Lawrence School Board and Lawrence Boys and Girls Club voiced opposition to the location, saying it was too close to the Lawrence College and Career Center and the proposed site of the Boys and Girls Club teen center.

“It’s a difficult one,” said Commissioner Pennie von Achen. “I’m going to support it, even though I voted against it last time, primarily because it does seem like this location is… I just can’t find a reason that it really will present a risk to the school or the Boys and Girls Club.”

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Five commissioners voted to approve the rezoning Monday and two voted against it, even though they felt the location as better than The Malls site. Commissioner Bruce Liese abstained, saying he thought the 31st Street location was better than The Malls, but he didn’t want to vote counter to his denial in November.

When the Lawrence City Commission took up the issue in January with the planning commission’s recommendation that it deny the gun range proposed for 31st Street, it was brought up that Sells had submitted plans for an alternative location at The Malls.

Because The Malls location is already zoned to allow for a gun range, it did not need approval from either the planning or city commissions. According to city documents, that site has already been administratively approved.

The development led city commissioners to send the proposal back to the planning commission for a second look. Planning commissioners agreed the 31st Street site was preferable, calling it “safer” and an “obvious choice” and saying The Malls spot would be “detrimental.”

The measure will go back before the City Commission for a final determination.

Commissioner Jim Denney asked — and the other commissioners agreed– that city planning staff research how other cities zone gun ranges. He thought The Malls location shouldn’t have had the zoning to allow for them.

“The Malls location bothers me a great deal,” Denney said. “I think this question needs to be addressed to give a good common sense look at where gun ranges should go.”

Sells spoke briefly Monday to the city’s decision to shut down the gun range in the basement of the Lawrence Community Building. The city closed the gun range last week, after conversations about Sells’ proposal brought to light that the Community Building gun range violated the federal Gun Free School Zones Act.

“I’m sorry to see the city had to close the gun range that they had there,” Sells said. “It wasn’t my plan to try to get them shut down.”