BROOKINGS — It took some perseverance and answering a lot of questions, but a small-business owner succeeded in getting approval from the Brookings City Council to relocate his gunsmithing operation into a residential neighborhood.

On a 4-2 vote, with Councilor Nick Wendell absent, councilors gave the green light on a conditional use permit that allows Tyler Brockel’s Havoc Engineering Group to move from the South Dakota State University Research Park to a residence on Larkspur Ridge Drive, which is near Dakota Prairie Elementary School. Brockel said changing business conditions spurred the decision to seek the change.

Voting in favor of the permit was Mayor Oepke “Ope” Niemeyer and councilors Lisa Hager, Bonny Specker and Brianna Doran. Voting against the permit were councilors Holly Tilton Byrne and Wayne Avery.

The permit comes with several conditions:

• It’s valid only for Brockel at the 2505 Larkspur Ridge Drive address and is nontransferable.

• Build or assembly classes are prohibited at the residence.

• Brockel must submit proof of all relevant licensing renewals every three years.

Councilors asked about a variety of issues during discussions leading up to the vote, including types of licensing, ammunition, potential class locations, gun types, safety precautions and whether the relocated business would be a good fit as a “major home occupation.”

Addressing those concerns and more, Brockel said guns wouldn’t be assembled on site, and that only parts for such, made by third-party machine shops in other areas of the country, would arrive at the premises. Those components would either have to be signed for, he said, or put into secure storage. He noted that he has such storage available, along with surveillance systems.

“Everything follows ATF law,” he pointed out at the City Council’s May 27 meeting, noting that a complex mix of FBI background checks, ATF regulations and serial number regulations for gun parts are taken into account. “There are no ghost guns … everything is done by law.”

Furthermore, Brockel said build classes are a very small part of his business — with only one, four-person class in the last two years — and that they can only take place with other businesses that hold federal firearm licenses. For example, he said he’s looking at First Amendment Designs in Aurora as a potential class site.

“We will not being doing them in just random places that we rent,” he said.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, Brockel added that the business is predominantly a side thing for him that he does on nights and weekends. Furthermore, its focus is on product development consulting, government bid contracting for various firearms-related stuff, particularly for Veterans Affairs, and, to a far lesser degree, the aforementioned build classes.

His explanations paid dividends when the time to vote came.

“I appreciate you answering all these questions. My line of questioning for the last two weeks was not necessarily a comment on your ownership,” Doran said before voting in favor of the conditional use permit. “It’s understanding this business model and this process, so I appreciate your patience through this as well.”

While Tilton Byrne ended up voting against the permit, she said it wasn’t personal.

“I don’t have a problem with this type of business. I don’t have a problem with you as a business owner,” she said. “It’s more just the location of this type of business that I have a little bit of concern with.”

Niemeyer had some thoughts as well toward the end of the discussion.

“I don’t have a problem with any of this. This gentleman’s probably got neighbors down the street that might have 20 guns in their house and we don’t even know it,” he said. “At least this one’s out in the public and he’s going through the hoops that he needs to to do this right. … This guy’s been up front with us and this is the route that he has to go through.”

In other business on Tuesday, councilors:

• On a 6-0 vote, approved a bid of $461,336.63 from Timmons Construction for the 20th Street shared use path project. While the bid doesn’t include engineering costs, it does come in roughly 23% lower than an engineer’s cost estimate, which was budgeted at $650,000.

• Awarded the bid for trail and drainage improvements at Arrowhead Park on a 6-0 vote. Coming in at $201,253.34 and also going to Timmons Construction, the bid was roughly 19% lower than an engineer’s estimate of $325,000.

• Approved, on a 6-0 vote, a total of $460,000 for work in the Brookings Marketplace area. A sewer line extension along Capital Street is priced at $200,000, while street paving and other improvements on the same stretch are priced at $260,000.

The enhancements were characterized in city documents as supporting “ongoing economic development efforts and prepare the area for future private investment.”

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.