Elk Grove City Council to consider spending $800K to continue studying future Elk Grove Zoo

At Wednesday night’s meeting, the Elk Grove City Council will consider spending an additional $800,000 to continue studying the feasibility of relocating the Sacramento Zoo to Elk Grove. The city has already allocated $533,000 thus far to work on the proposal. If the additional funds are approved a final decision could be made on the zoo in early 2024. What has yet to be determined is how much of the cost of building the new zoo will come from taxpayers and how much will come from private donors.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In September 2021, the City entered into an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with the Sacramento Zoological Society to study the feasibility of relocation of the Zoo to Elk Grove (the New Zoo in Elk Grove Project, or Project).

On March 23, 2022, the City Council reviewed the feasibility study and directed the continuation of the process, advancing conceptual and schematic master planning and preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed Project. The next steps and responsibilities of the City and the Sacramento Zoological Society are defined in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) adopted on May 25, 2022.

The City Council provided initial funding for analysis of the Project and preparation of the EIR concurrently with the acquisition of the candidate Project site in February 2022, allocating $500,000 towards the effort. These funds were combined with $33,000 allocated from the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 budget from department operations in Strategic Planning and Innovation and Economic Development. Therefore, the current total budget allocation towards studying the Project is $533,000.
City of Elk Grove