Is it the Golden 1 Center of Elk Grove? Mayor sees the zoo as ‘absolutely our arena moment’

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Like the financing plan carved out a decade ago that led to the construction of the Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento, the proposed $302 million zoo development plan which Elk Grove’s City Council was expected to pass Wednesday night is largely dependent on public financing.

“This is absolutely our arena moment,” Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said in an interview ahead of the vote that will, if successful, signify a big step forward moving a quaint zoo from Land Park in Sacramento to a facility five times the size. Interactive and experiential features, proponents say, will bring a world-class zoo, featuring savannas where African wildlife will roam.

Singh-Allen, first elected in 2020 and now in her second term as mayor, acknowledged that, while many people around the country would be hard-pressed to place Elk Grove on a map, she thinks the zoo will help change that.

She described the 65-acre project as a “tourism driver” and will show what Elk Grove can be.

“Elk Grove can dream big and do big things,” she said. “We’ve got adult entertainment in the casino. Now we will have family entertainment down the road.”

Singh-Allen also described the zoo as a passion project which reflects her civic values.

“I raised my two kids here,” she said. “What families have always asked for is having more family-friendly attractions and options. And I can’t think of something more family-friendly than a zoo.”

More than a zoo

Christopher Jordan, Elk Grove’s director of strategic planning and innovation, said the zoo plan makes sense for many reasons, including the infrastructure benefits the project will bring.

For example, millions of dollars dedicated to bike paths will bring local visitors right to the zoo. Jordan projects that 7% of visitors will arrive at the zoo by bike. Eventually, he believes, the zoo will help make a reality light rail linking Sacramento to Elk Grove.

“Much like Golden 1 provides an amenity to the region for sports, concerts, special events and graduations, the zoo will be more than just a zoo,” he said. “It will be a place to host weddings and all kinds of special events.”

And, Jordan said, zoo visitors will bring other economic benefits. “Families might stop at a restaurant and maybe get a meal,” he said. “Or stop at the shopping center and pick something up on the way home.”

About 57% of the funding for the zoo, the city projects, would come from city reserves and bonds. If the master plan is approved Wednesday, many steps, including identifying grants for energy conservation, animal care and fundraising $50 million by the Sacramento Zoological Society, lie ahead. The society has already raised around $15 million toward that goal.

The zoo project will take at least eight years to come to fruition.

Elk Grove officials said the project will require around $114 million in bond funding. The repayment plan, at least in its present form, appears not to be a major general fund burden, with $2.5 million out of $7.8 million, in total, in annual payments derived from casino annual tax in-lieu funds, and another $2.5 million coming directly from the Sacramento Zoological Society.

City of Elk Grove fact sheets point to numerous economic benefits from the construction and eventual operation of the zoo, including 2,000 construction jobs. Elk Grove anticipates a $249 million overall benefit in the first five years once the zoo is operational.

Mayor studies zoos

But for Singh-Allen, the project is about more than dollars and cents. The mayor is passionate about the benefits of well-designed zoos.

Last year, the mayor and her husband visited the London zoo on a vacation, she said. During an April trip to New York for a speech, she managed a quick trip to the Bronx Zoo. Singh-Allen wanted to see the zoo’s Gelada monkey reserve, with a rare species native to Ethiopia. These animals are part of the plan for the Elk Grove zoo.

“They’re the size of a baboon, I have never seen a monkey that size,” she said. “We would be one of the few zoos in the country that would host this amazing species.”

Along with other city leaders, Singh-Allen has also toured the Houston Zoo, the second most-visited in the nation and, Elk Grove and zoo officials said, one of their models for designing the Elk Grove zoo.

In Houston and at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, the mayor said she was mesmerized by interactive rhinoceros habitats where visitors can feed and touch rhinos.

“Having the opportunity to feed and scratch the rhinos is amazing,” she said. “They are like giant puppies. They love that contact, that connection. Just feeding one and petting one is transformative. We want people in this region to have that experience.

“We live in such a fragile world, and one of the things that I love to do at zoos is just watch kids light up, and say, ‘wow.’ Zoos can be magical places and really educate young people about climate change and habitat loss.”

Even though the amount of public investment required to make the zoo’s move to Elk Grove seems reminiscent of the hundreds of millions of dollars of public investment required to build the Golden 1 Center and keep the Kings in Sacramento, the projects differ in a significant way. Unlike the arena, the zoo’s public financing has aroused almost no controversy, at least for the moment.

“There is zero organized opposition,” Singh-Allen said. “I can count on literally one hand the number of negative emails I have received about the zoo. I’ve received hundreds, 300 to 400 positive emails. One of the things that I always hear from constituents is: ‘When is the zoo going in?’ People are excited about it.”

Sacramento’s mayor likes an Elk Grove zoo

Built in 1927, the Sacramento Zoo attracts around 500,000 visitors per year. Even Sacramento’s Mayor Darrell Steinberg endorsed a ‘yes’ vote in a letter he wrote to the Elk Grove City Council last week.

“While I hate to see the zoo leave its home in the City of Sacramento,” Steinberg wrote, “I recognize that moving it to Elk Grove could better secure the future of this regional treasure and increase its ability to care for animals and attract visitors from Sacramento and beyond. I celebrate that Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen and the people of Elk Grove are working so hard to bring the zoo to their city and have identified 65 acres of land that can house it.”

One reason that Singh-Allen and Jordan suggested that the plan has not stirred significant controversy is because the city’s finances are solid. Unlike Sacramento, which has a $66 million deficit, Elk Grove has set aside millions for major investments such as the zoo.

Jordan said that as a city incorporated just 24 years ago, Elk Grove has structural advantages.

“We don’t have the history and the baggage,” he said. “We do a really robust job of making sure that as we consider new development, that that new development pays its fair share towards the construction infrastructure and the maintenance of that infrastructure.”

Although an Elk Grove zoo grand opening could be as long as a decade away, Singh-Allen said if the voters continue to support her, she hopes to see what she calls a “legacy project” right up until the ribbon cutting.

“We’re showing that Elk Grove is capable of doing big things,” she said. “We know that this will be just the beginning.”