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An idyllic oceanfront California community continues to react to the news that a local gun shop is about to open next to a daycare in early September, sparking rallies by residents and leading to immediate action down at city hall. Goleta is a small bedroom community of about 30,000 just up the coast from Santa Barbara. The bucolic town is perhaps known best statewide for being the original home of the Habit Burger & Grill. News broke here earlier this month that a local gun shop, called Goodland Guns, was moving next door to the Here We Grow Early Learning Center on Hollister Avenue, one of the town’s main drags, sending shock waves through the community right away. After news of the gun shop’s location broke, the community immediately held a rally in the park next to the daycare center on Monday, Aug. 3. Opponents spoke out against having a gun store in such close proximity to children. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Goleta City Council members and Dan Ashton, the gun store owner, also attended the rally and addressed the community members and their concerns. The gun shop, which used to be in Old Town Goleta, recently signed a 25-year lease on the Hollister Avenue location in an empty commercial space that once was a 7-Eleven. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Ashton confirmed to SFGATE on Tuesday that despite the community concerns, the store’s opening in the new location next to the daycare is going forward as planned. He said that a soft opening took place on Aug. 10, and the grand opening of the new shop is set for Sept. 5. Ashton said that from the beginning, he had preferred to stay in his Old Town Goleta spot. “Finding a commercial location took three years of continuous searching, with regular communications with the city over the last 12 months,” he wrote SFGATE via email on Tuesday. “Due to Goleta’s rapid growth and the exodus of businesses from Santa Barbara, commercial and industrial spaces are incredibly scarce—especially for a highly regulated firearms retailer.” He said his previous landlord gave him a 30-day notice to vacate the spot the store had been at for 11 years so they could “double the rent.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad “I no longer had the luxury of waiting,” he wrote. “Although commercial rent increases in California are capped at 10% annually, this unfortunately seems to be a convenient workaround for building owners. Small businesses in California are being squeezed out by skyrocketing commercial rents, and this was the only viable location that accommodated the State’s strict operational requirements.” Despite the outcry, Ashton believes his presence at the rally and the interactions with the community have been mostly positive. “I had some very productive back-and-forth dialogues with residents who both raised valid concerns as well as understood my position better after I clarified it,” he wrote. “We want to be good neighbors, which is why we’ve proactively implemented feasible solutions in direct response to my neighbors’ input.” Ashton said he’s installed a privacy screen across the shared fence with the daycare. He also pointed out that he has “heavily secured a 7-Eleven property that had sat vacant but trespassed for years.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad Even with the open dialogue and the new safeguards Goodland Guns said it’s putting in place, concerns about the gun shop’s new location are still rampant in Goleta and the region. “Join us in safeguarding our community and ensuring that our neighborhood remains a safe haven for our families,” says an online petition. “Let us be heard and work together to prevent this gun shop from opening in such a sensitive location.” “Our children attend Ellwood Elementary, and live just down the street from this location, walking by it regularly,” a petitioner’s comment read. “There must be a more appropriate place for this business to set up shop instead of within a high density, family oriented neighborhood adjacent to a wonderful preschool.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad City of Goleta representatives said they have taken note. They acknowledged that there are no current restrictions on where a gun store can open within town limits. A business license was issued to Goodland Guns to operate in the new location in early June. Continued public outcry over the issue, however, has sparked action at city hall. “We are going to bring some options back that could lead to a change in our zoning or an ordinance that would put potentially more restrictions where gun stores could be located,” Goleta City Manager Robert Nisbet told SFGATE via phone Tuesday. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Nisbet said the issue is slated for discussion at the upcoming City Council meeting on Sept. 1. He said while he couldn’t speak for what the City Council will ultimately decide to do, he noted that he believes it is “looking forward to putting greater restrictions on [gun stores].” Nisbet noted that while the city currently allows gun shops only in commercial zones, it would be unable to ban them altogether. “There’s the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms,” he said. “Cities cannot really restrict gun stores [wholesale] within a city. You can’t do it.” “The general concept is to make it more restrictive, what we define as sensitive zones, places like a daycare,” he added Advertisement Article continues below this ad But even an ordinance change would not likely impact the current new location of Goodland Guns, he noted. Goodland Guns owner Ashton said he does not blame the city of Goleta for his relocation or the backlash: “To be clear, this is not a City of Goleta problem,” he wrote. “The city was simply doing its job interpreting (although incorrectly at times) and enforcing the incredibly strict California Building Code (CBC) and California Fire Code (CFC). The real issue is the crushing regulatory environment the State of California has created for small businesses. The state makes it nearly impossible to open, move, or survive.” BECOME A FRIEND. GET OUR AD-FREE APP. SFGATE reached out to Here We Grow Learning owner Heather Robbins for comment but did not receive any response by the time of publication. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Ashton said he has not yet spoken with Robbins. “My door remains open to having a respectful conversation with her about how we can coexist as safe, secure, and quiet neighbors,” he wrote. — Central Valley commuter city can't stop megadevelopment — California's first carbon capture facility raises fears — Massive pod of dolphins sighted cavorting off Calif. coast — Calif. farmers bulldoze apple trees after Martinelli's ends contracts Get SFGATE's top stories sent to your inbox by signing up for The Daily newsletter here.