Vote Aims to Put Horses on Stable Footing
Hoping to ease the shortage of horse stalls, the Planning Commission has recommended that commercial stable operators be allowed to permanently increase the number of horses they keep by 12%.
The proposal, raising the number of horses allowed per acre from 25 to 28, now moves to the City Council.
In April, the City Council responded to the pending closure of the Creekside Equestrian Center by adopting a temporary ordinance raising the stablelimit.
The emergency measure also allowed for the immediate addition of stalls to help accommodate about 185 horses displaced from Creekside.
The number of large-scale stable operations in San Juan Capistrano has dropped by nearly half in the last decade, from 14 to eight.
A quarter of all the boarded horses in Orange County reside in the city, which has a network of riding trails estimated to be 29 miles long.
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