The Sacramento Zoo’s highly-anticipated move to Elk Grove has officially received the green light.
Last week, the Elk Grove City Council voted to approve the zoo’s move from Land Park, where it first opened in 1927.
Zoo officials say the current 14-acre campus is too small to house some larger animals and expand attractions, and that aging infrastructure could affect the zoo’s accreditation. They’ve been searching for a location to move to for some time, but after a fruitless search in Sacramento, they turned their sights on Elk Grove in 2021.
In 2022, Elk Grove city officials approved the purchase of a 100-acre lot on the south side of town, near the intersection of Kammerer Road and Lotz Parkway. A portion of the lot will be used to house the new zoo.
Also in 2022, the Sacramento Zoological Association and Elk Grove city officials dispatched design studios to create plans for the new zoo. The groups released renderings which boast a zoo that officials say lets visitors be “immersed in the animals’ surroundings” with exhibits and experiences that will bring visitors face-to-face with animals in their natural habitats.
The project will be the first large-scale animal park built in the United States since 1998, when Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened.
Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen and Jason Jacobs, Executive Director of the Sacramento Zoo, spoke with CapRadio’s Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about the years-long process behind the relocation, and what the next steps might bring.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
There's a long process and culmination that needed to happen to get to this moment. So just a quick recap for those who maybe are unfamiliar with the saga of the Sacramento Zoo, why did you end up deciding to move from Sacramento to Elk Grove?
Jacobs: The quickest recap is that the zoo is landlocked, we’re on 14 and a half acres without any parking. Over the past 20 years, we have had to send many iconic animals away: hippopotamus, grizzly bear, tiger, chimpanzees. Tigers and chimps have been in my tenure. You’re stripping away the very fabric of what a zoo is.
And we worked with the city of Sacramento to identify several sites, [but] the sites were no longer available. And in April of 2021, the Sacramento Zoological society's board of directors — we are a non-profit — voted to allow me to try to find another partner and the first potential partner I called was the city of Elk Grove. I can let Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen take it from there with the rest of the story.
Singh-Allen: Yes, so when we got the initial contact out over two years ago, obviously the council and staff were excited about this potential opportunity. And we see this as a transformative project and a massive civic amenity not only for the city of Elk Grove, but for the entire region. This is not just a win for my city, but it is a win for those amazing animals and it's a win for the entire region. We need a modern zoo so that the species, these beautiful animals, can thrive, because ultimately it comes down to conservation and education as well.
How much more acreage do you gain by moving to Elk Grove?
Jacobs: The new zoo would be 63 acres of a zoological park, plus 10 acres of parking.
Paint us a picture of what this new space might look like. I mean you're growing by more than four times the acreage that you currently have, right?
Jacobs: The first phase would double the size of the current zoo. So the first phase is going to be about 30 acres and is really going to be focused on African grassland animals because we want to play to our strengths and the new site doesn't have a lot of trees. It's going to be a landscape immersion habitat where you're going to feel like you are sharing the same space as animals such as lions, giraffes, rhinoceros, cheetah, meerkat, antelope, gazelle — just like an African safari. You might have dinner at a safari lodge overlooking an African waterhole. We're going to create that experience in Elk Grove. It'll be the only experience like that in the region.
I think about when I was a kid — this was decades ago — visiting the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Is it something similar to that?
Jacobs: Well, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is 1,800 acres. This is much smaller, but we can utilize landscape immersion and clever landscaping to make an incredible walking experience for people to experience an African safari. You know, a walking safari.
You're going to be able to see the animals at close range, still have intimate experiences, but the animals will have a much better quality of life. For instance, the giraffes are going to go into a habitat that is 10 times the size of the current zoo.
Why is now the right time to have something like this for Elk Grove?
Singh-Allen: The city has been saving for a large project like this, for a serious civic amenity. We have a strong financial base to be able to even look at something like this. And so we're in that crossroads if you will, not only do we have a rapidly growing community but also the community is family-oriented. I raise my children here and I've lived here over 31 years. One of the things that I hear from residents is having more family-friendly amenities, so I can't think of anything more family-friendly than an iconic zoo here in the city, but it's not just for children. It's for all ages alike to have these wonderful experiences.
Like I said, this is that moment, not only as a growing city, but we were in a strong financial standing to even be able to consider something like this. So we're not putting this burden on our residents, we have a great financing plan. The zoo is going to be doing excellent work on their fundraising. This is a public-private partnership. So we're all in this journey together and looking forward to working together and getting this done.
This is also bittersweet for the city of Sacramento. The Sacramento Zoo has been in Land Park for close to a century. I know there are people in Sacramento that are sad to see it leave. What message do you have for them?
Jacobs: Well, look. A lot of the feelings about the zoo are stoked into nostalgia, right? A lot of people grew up — generations — going to the zoo.
Ultimately I would say that if you care about wildlife, if you care about conservation, the world will need good zoos — now more than ever, in the next 25 to 50 years — to take care of animals right here in our own state. Like western pond turtles and other animals that need rescue and rehabilitation from wildfires, which we're going to plan on doing at the new zoo. But also iconic animals that people expect to see when you go to a zoo, like giraffes, we don't have the space to manage giraffes long-term at the current site. We will in Elk Grove.
And we're going to be much more accessible. We're gonna have parking, we're going to be able to do a lot more for conservation and we can do so much more for the region by being a zoo. When you benchmark our operation against zoos and similar metro populations, we should be doing a million visitors a year. We have the population to sustain it. … I believe that depending on where you live the drive might be a little longer, but it'll be worth the drive. I guarantee it.
Do you think we could have an opening date by the end of the decade?
Singh-Allen: I am very optimistic. You know, I don't like to give dates and then not be able to meet them. But I know that this is a priority and we're going to be working around the clock — not only on the fundraising but all of the reports and the studies that we have to get done.
