Why are protesters in downtown Puyallup outside City Hall? Large rally planned
Residents who argue that recent changes to Puyallup’s comprehensive plan will make the city less inclusive plan to protest downtown this weekend.
Pennie Saum, one of the organizers, said she expects to have at least 100 protesters at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, outside City Hall.
Saum said the local group South Sound Changemakers and the 25th Legislative District Democrats are organizing the protest. They’re also turning out Saturday as part of the national “Rage Against the Regime” protest against the Trump administration but also specifically to call for city leaders to reverse the changes to the comprehensive plan, Saum said.
At the same time, she said she expected another 100 people on the Seventh Street Southeast overpass above state Route 512, as part of a separate protest planned by Indivisible Puyallup (a local chapter of the national organization).
“We’re trying to help people, to educate people, not just stand there with signs,” she said.
Controversy over changes to Puyallup’s city plan
The City Council voted 4-3 on July 22 to pass the city’s comprehensive plan with the controversial changes.
Mayor Jim Kastama, Deputy Mayor Dennis King and council members Dean Johnson and Renne Gilliam voted to approve the amended plan. Council members Lauren Adler, Julie Door and Ned Witting voted against it.
About 50 residents spoke against the changes, according to the index of the meeting video online.
Kastama proposed the changes that got the most attention, according to the city’s website, including adding language that the city will follow federal executive orders, including when they go against state law; replacing the word “equity” with the word “equality” in many sections; changing language about the history of the Puyallup Tribe; and changing language that identifies race as a barrier to housing, The News Tribune reported.
Another amendment, from Witting and Kastama, the website states, removed a policy to require the city to analyze climate-change impacts as part of new construction. Witting said he worried about the impact the provision could have on affordable housing.
He said at the meeting that he didn’t think the council intended to exclude anyone with the changes but that he wouldn’t support the plan.
“The federal government is getting more involved in state and local politics, and the way we live our lives in a pretty direct fashion, which we push back on some of the intrusions that state government has had on Puyallup and how we try to run our city,” he said. “And I think we need to do the same at the national level, which in my opinion is far worse.”
Adler said at the meeting that the amended plan goes against everything she stands for and that she can see a situation where the city could face expensive litigation with the state over the changes.
Door said that the plan does not represent the community.
“I do not understand why we would take a four-year presidents’ administrations’ directives and implement them on a 20-year plan,” she said at the meeting, “It makes no sense to me.”
Kastama said at the meeting that “race-neutral terminology aligns with both Washington state law and the U.S. Constitution,” and “You should not use color as a distinguishing characteristic for policy.”
Some of the changes had to do with legal definitions, he said.
“True inclusion means recognizing and supporting all people who face barriers,” Kastama said.
‘I would rather be relaxing.’
Saturday won’t be the first time the groups have protested downtown. They’ve had smaller groups there on-and-off since the November 2024 election, Saum said, and more recently they’ve been a fairly regular presence on Saturdays during the farmers market held across the street from City Hall.
“We’re trying to break down barriers and really speak to people on a human level,” she said.
Saum said she’s lived in Puyallup for more than 25 years and that she’s seen the city become more diverse in that time. Puyallup has more Black and brown residents today than it did a decade ago, she said, and the city’s LGBTQ population has grown such that 1,000 residents showed up for Puyallup’s Pride celebration this year.
“We have to keep fighting so that those people who represent us represent all people, not just some,” she said.
Beyond the protest Saturday, Saum said residents are organizing a community meeting at the Puyallup Library at 5 p.m. on Aug. 13 to talk about next steps.
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One resident, Matt Caras, has been protesting daily outside City Hall since the July 22 vote. He said he plans to be there every day, except for Sunday when he has obligations with his church, until the city reverses the changes to the comprehensive plan.
He’s a teacher, he said, and has the summer off.
“I would rather be relaxing, but it is what it is,” he said. “... It’s up to us to hold the people in charge accountable.”
News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misstated the involvement of Indivisible Puyallup in the protests. Indivisible Puyallup organized sign waving on the state Route 512 overpass. The group did not participate in the protest outside City Hall. An earlier version of this story also misstated one of the changes to the comprehensive plan. The change replaces the word “equity” with the word “equality” in many sections, according to the city’s website.
This story was originally published August 2, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
