Residents say equestrian complaint logs and late materials undercut trust in DCD process

Several members of the public told the Planning Commission on Feb. 3 they were concerned that DCD distributed complaint logs and survey drafts on short notice and that outlier cases are driving impressions about the equestrian community.

"In October, we are told this process would be transparent, collaborative, and data driven," said Dawn Oian of Port Orchard, arguing that the complaint file showed concentrated outliers rather than broad community complaints. Jessie Olsen, a small-working-group participant, said her review found 119 equestrian-related complaints from 2012–2025 representing under 6% of the overall files provided and identified nine facilities as recurrent in the logs.

Annie Braddock, another working-group member, said her review showed 40 unique addresses in the dataset and that many of the problem sites no longer operate as equestrian businesses. Public commenters asked staff to provide clearer meeting notes, share data earlier, and explain survey methodology so working-group members can meaningfully review materials before meetings.

Staff acknowledged timing concerns and said they would continue to parse complaint data, present case studies, and publish a survey. No policy decisions were made at the Feb. 3 meeting.