Councilwoman Chauna Banks says she will hold a public hearing at this afternoon’s Metro Council meeting to discuss the future of the BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo, even though BREC Superintendent Carolyn McKnight says she doesn’t have any updated information to present to the council and won’t attend the meeting.
In an email sent Tuesday afternoon to council members and BREC commissioners, Banks says she wants an update on BREC’s plans for the zoo because citizens from throughout the city have been requesting information for the past several months. Banks adds that McKnight has “flatly refused” to meet with them.
“I am at my wits end with the numerous discussions and questions I am called upon to answer in public forums from one end of the parish to the other,” Banks writes in the email. “We will proceed on tomorrow with a public hearing as advertised with or without Superintendent McKnight’s cooperation.”
The future of the zoo became a flashpoint for controversy last spring, after a study commissioned by BREC recommended relocating the zoo to one of two possible locations—BREC’s Airline Highway Park near Blue Bayou Water Park or an undeveloped tract of land at Nicholson Drive and Bluebonnet Boulevard near L’Auberge Casino & Hotel.
McKnight has said she favors the move as a way of keeping the zoo sustainable. Banks has been a vocal critic of any move, arguing the zoo is a valuable economic development engine for north Baton Rouge and should be upgraded at its current location on Thomas Road.
In an unrelated interview late last week, McKnight told Daily Report she remains steadfast in her belief that the zoo has to relocate if it is to survive.
“I don’t believe the zoo is in the right place,” she said. “Where the right place is, I don’t know yet, but I know it’s not in the right place now.”
McKnight said BREC has been reviewing the 2016 study internally and has been approached by various people about potential sites but hasn’t seriously vetted any of them. She does say, however, that the Airline Highway Park site is “off the table” because it flooded last August.
As for the Nicholson site, she says, “I’m not convinced that is the best location … so unless and until we can look and see what is really out here I’m not willing to move on this issue. … In the meantime, we will continue to provide the best possible zoo we can at the current location.”
The Metro Council meets at 4 p.m. today on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.
—Stephanie Riegel
