SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Zoo officials are planning to ask city leaders to approve a 6-month long study to help find a new location for the more than 90-year-old zoo.
The relocation feasibility study would cost $150,000 and could help determine possible new locations for the Sacramento Zoo, according to city documents.
Last year, zoo officials announced they were in danger of losing their accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The zoo has outdated enclosures and would need to expand to meet modern standards, zoo officials said.
“We've already lost a lot of animals, based on the constraints that we have at this location. So, if we had the right piece of property, the right business plan, we can create a world-class habitat for animals where we save species, we educate the public, and we help make Sacramento a destination,” Sacramento Zoo Director Jason Jacobs said in a November 2018 interview.
However, the nearly 14-acre zoo is located in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood and can’t expand there.
“I think that we don’t want them to lose their accreditation. We want to make sure that we can facilitate with them what a modern zoo would look like and something that could serve people throughout Sacramento and throughout the region,” said Sacramento City Councilman Jay Schenerir.
The city hired Schultz & Williams to conduct a similar study on the Sutter's Landing Park in 2010, which found that the area would be too costly. Over the last year, the agency looked at a dozen sites where a new zoo could be built, according to city documents.
The agency considered acreage and expansion capacity, vehicle and transit access, flood protection, availability of utilizes among other things to determine the best possible areas. The study identified the Sleep Train Arena, Bing Maloney Golf Course, and the North Natomas Regional Park as the best possible sites for relocation.
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