While Kalama is encouraging economic and population growth in their county by branding themselves “horse friendly,” Clark County is taking the opposite approach by “saddling” our horse facilities with expensive and unnecessary fees for permits and code violations. C’mon, a requirement to soundproof a barn?
The horse industry contributes approximately $50 billion in direct economic impact to the U.S. economy, according to a recent survey by the American Horse Council, and Washington is the 11th most horse-dense state with more than 20,000 horses. That number is down from 30,000 due to a drastic reduction in available pasture land. Why? Because Clark County is encouraging sale of these lands to developers to use them to contribute to urban sprawl, and urban traffic, and urban pollution.
Keep Clark County a balance of farmland and growth. Save the horse farms.
