City agrees to study Sacramento Zoo expansion in Land Park. What comes next?
The Sacramento City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a memorandum of understanding to study the possible zoo expansion in William Land Park.
Prior to the vote, some residents expressed concern during public comment that the MOU between the city and the Sacramento Zoological Society was the start of a preset process.
While local leaders attempted to assure the public that result of the study wouldn’t be predetermined, longtime Land Park resident Luree Stetson wasn’t reassured.
“We don’t know,” said Stetson, when asked if she was confident the process. “But we’re going to the work group with that intention.”
What the MOU allows
Sacramento Zoo has operated in Land Park since the 1920s and currently occupies just over 14 acres there, making it one of the smaller accredited zoos in America.
Since a possible move to Elk Grove collapsed last year, the zoo has been in contact with the city about expanding in Land Park. The expansion has been tentatively proposed in former pony ride area along Land Park Drive that workers disassembled in February and in the Primrose Hill area that currently includes a statue of pioneer Charles Swanston and garden.
The two areas comprise roughly 5.8 acres of the park.
Proposed zoo expansion
Source: Sacramento Zoo
Dustin Hollingsworth, who is the city’s representative on the nonprofit Sacramento Zoo’s board of trustees, gave the presentation during the Tuesday meeting. He stressed that the MOU wouldn’t lock the city into expansion. “It establishes a framework of things to be considered,” Hollingsworth told the meeting.
A report provided with the meeting agenda noted that the MOU will include creating a phasing plan for expansion, reviewing the park master plan and developing a strategy for community engagement that includes a working group of community representatives.
Ten people spoke during public comment.
Jill Culbertson of Visit Sacramento, a destination marketing organization for the city, offered enthusiastic support from her organization for “growing the offerings” of the zoo.
Art Scotland, a member of the zoo’s board of trustees who has lived much of his life in the neighborhood of Land Park, also urged approval of the MOU.
But many members of the public who spoke were concerned about the working group process and how the potential expansion would affect the park.
Linda Farley urged the council not to move forward with the MOU.
“I understand the MOU is being positioned as a study, but it is not a neutral exploration of all options,” Farley told the council. “It is focused on advancing a specific path: extension, expansion within the park. Studying this option doesn’t solve the zoo’s long-term challenges. It risks losing park land without delivering a lasting, sustainable solution.”
Multiple speakers voiced fears about the zoo expanding into the Swanston statue area. Rick Stevenson said the area was a good vista. “To capriciously destroy it makes absolutely no sense,” Stevenson said.
No speakers voiced concern about expanding into the pony ride area, though Stetson said after she left the meeting that this was because that area had already been destroyed.
Kristina Rogers, president of the Land Park Community Association, told the council there was time to develop a plan everybody could support. “A though timeline needs to be shared with the public,” Rogers said.
There was little debate among the council about whether to approve the MOU. “This doesn’t set up the end,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said.
Sacramento Councilmember Rick Jennings, whose district includes the zoo, was also optimistic about finding consensus.
“If we work together in this process from now until September, we can come up with a plan that takes all your fears away,” Jennings said.
Of the council, only Roger Dickinson expressed mild concern, saying that both the zoo and Land Park were “very special,” though he also said it was okay to launch the study.
“For me, the outcome is certainly not preordained,” Dickinson said.
What happens next
Two people who were in the crowd during the meeting and didn’t speak were Dan Simon, who became CEO of Sacramento Zoo last year, and Elizabeth Stallard, who is president of the zoo’s board of trustees.
Speaking to The Sacramento Bee shortly after the council voted, Simon expressed satisfaction with the meeting. “It was good to see the support from the council,” Simon said. “I think they recognize that it’s a starting point, not the end point.”
Simon said he expects the working group’s first meeting to occur in May. The agreement ends on Sept. 1.
The MOU indicates that the group will include representatives of neighborhood community organizations.
At a Land Park Community Association meeting in March, Stallard stressed that if the zoo wasn’t able to expand in Land Park, it would have to look at moving once more. Following the council’s vote, Stallard said the possibility of a move was “900%” still on the table.
“It is always on the table,” Stallard said. “We have to plan for the zoo’s future and the 14.3 acres is not enough space.”
The Land Park Community Association grew out of a protracted fight in the 1980s that residents had with the city and won, staving off a plan at the time to expand the zoo into the park.
