Carlsbad Gift Shop Wins Council Approval to Sell Firearms

Gunther Gifts sells the usual fare—trinket boxes, glassware, money clips. Soon it could be storing and selling handguns.

Despite disapproval from the Carlsbad Planning Commission and city staff, the local store with an online business is closer to selling firearms.

In a 3-2 vote, the Carlsbad City Council Tuesday night asked staff to return with a resolution approving Gunther Gifts’ second request for a conditional use permit to sell guns from its store off Palomar Airport Road.

The Carlsbad Planning Commission on March 20 denied the online retailer’s request for a permit. City staff also recommended council members deny the application.

After the Planning Commission and City Council denied her first application in 2012, Lisa Gunther submitted a revised application to sell firearms at her store. The new application expands the proposed retail floor space from 965 square feet to 1,359 square feet, and requires gun buyers purchase store memberships.

Gunther told the council that her store had 13 employees when she originally went before the Planning Commission in 2012. Now she has two employees.

“We are fighting for fairness. We are fighting to survive,” Gunther said. “We are rapidly burning through our life savings to pay building expenses, and time is running out.”

Associate City Planner Shannon Werneke said staff recommended council members deny the application because a gun store would not follow the intent of the industrial zoning in the area.

The retail stores that currently operate in the area, she explained, serve the daily needs of the industrial tenants and are primarily banks, delis and coffee shops, dry cleaners, hair salons and office supply stores.

“The commercial or retail uses are required to be clearly oriented to support the surrounding industrial uses,” Werneke said. “Staff does not feel that this is a commercial service that is oriented to serve the industrial park tenants, most of which are corporate offices and light industry.”

Gunther argued that a number of the industrial businesses in the area currently run retail operations without conditional use permits. She added that Gunther Gifts has the support of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, Carlsbad Oaks Master Association and Promontory Business Park Association.

“We have spent over $20,000 in over a year trying to convince the Planning Department and Commission to help our struggling business,” Gunther said. “They have refused, yet they’re actively working toward helping all the unpermitted retail in the zone right now.”

Mayor Matt Hall and Mayor Pro Tem Mark Packard voted against the resolution.

“I think we need to really get a clear understanding of what retail use is and what we’re willing to accept as far as retail use in our office and industrial zones,” Hall said.

Council members Keith Blackburn, Farrah Douglas and Lorraine Wood said they were impressed Gunther Gifts obtained support from nearby businesses.

“I do believe this is a small business, and we need to support the small businesses,” Douglas said. “Hopefully their business will thrive and survive.”

Blackburn added, “In this particular case, I think this is an opportunity for the council to get out of the way of a small business and let them succeed.”

In other council business:

• The City Council introduced and adopted an urgency ordinance prohibiting mini-satellite wagering.
• The City Council introduced an ordinance to reduce the speed limit from 35 to 30 mph on Chestnut Avenue from Pio Pico Drive to El Camino Real.
• Council members established all way stops on Las Flores Drive at Pio Pico Drive.
• Council members approved a contract with artist Paul Hobson for the fabrication and installation of artwork at Alga Norte. 
• Council members approved a conditional use permit amendment to allow for the conversion of 1,000 square feet of retail space to food service in an existing 3,000-square-foot building and to allow the addition of a 700-square-foot outdoor dining patio, located within the Poinsettia Village shopping center, on the east side of Avenida Encinas between Poinsettia Lane and Loganberry Drive.