Elk Grove zoo relocation bid receives $800k infusion from city leaders
Elk Grove City Council unanimously approved more funding Wednesday in its ongoing effort to bring the Sacramento Zoo to the city.
Elk Grove leaders Wednesday considered an amendment to the 2022-2023 budget transferring $800,000 from the city’s reserves to its general fund for the new zoo project. The funding request passed 5-0.
“This is an opportunity to invest in Elk Grove’s future,” Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said before the council’s vote. “We’re just now starting to do that work. This is the necessary work we have to do as a city.”
Elk Grove and the Sacramento Zoological Society have been working together since 2021 to determine the feasibility of moving the aging, cramped Sacramento Zoo from William Land Park to a new 70-acre footprint at Kammerer Road and Lotz Parkway on the southern edge of Elk Grove.
The two sides have since shaken hands on an agreement that laid out a master plan for an initial 41 acres, a formal financing road map and a report on the project’s environmental impacts. Seattle zoo design firm SHR Studios also signed onto the project last year.
The zoo’s relocation to Elk Grove would be the first major park built in the United States since 1998 when Disney’s Animal Kingdom was finished in Florida.
Zoo and city officials in November presented renderings of what a regional zoo could look like in Elk Grove.
“We want this new zoo to be one of the best zoos in the United States,” said Jason Jacobs, the zoo’s executive director, in November. “We wanted to be different, we wanted to stand out and we wanted something that the city of Elk Grove and the entire region can be proud of.”
The city gave an initial $533,000 in February 2022 for an analysis of the project site at Lotz and Kammerer and an environmental impact report. The $800,000 represents the money needed to complete the work underlined in last May’s agreement, say city staffers.
Elk Grove business owner Felipe Martin voiced concerns about the new spending citing the amount amid a changing economy and recession fears. Councilman Kevin Spease echoed Martin’s concerns even as he voted to approve the budget request, saying he will need to see “significant” private funding for an Elk Grove zoo as the project moves forward.
“That’s my warning sign for the future,” Spease said.
Singh-Allen said a public-private partnership will be critical to the zoo’s future in Elk Grove: “The city can’t do this alone. Neither can the Sacramento Zoological Society.”
Elk Grove leaders have been aggressive in courting the zoo, touting its potential as not only a regional attraction projected to draw more than 1.2 million visitors a year, but a jobs producer and economic engine.
Work could begin late this year on the new zoo, though the project still requires a final financing plan and an environmental impact review.
This story was originally published January 25, 2023 at 3:40 PM.
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