On August 24, BREC’s board of commissioners will decide whether to move forward with plans to relocate the 47-year-old BREC Baton Rouge Zoo from its home in Greenwood Park, and replace it with a host of new amenities that include soccer fields, a water park, an adventure playground and wilderness trails.
Though the commission’s decision will only be a step in what still promises to be a lengthy process of study and planning, it will be controversial. As Business Report details in the cover story in its new issue, the future of the aging zoo has become a flashpoint in a community that is steeped these days in polarizing issues.
Some have tried to make the zoo debate about race and economic disparity. They argue that taking the zoo out of north Baton Rouge would rob the economically depressed area of one of its few attractions, and they say swapping the zoo, which will cost at least $110 million to build new, for a regional Greenwood Park, which has an estimated $40 million price tag, wouldn’t be an even trade.
But the zoo debate really isn’t a racial one. Rather, it’s about what makes the most sense for the community as a whole. What do north Baton Rouge residents want for the sprawling 660-acre Greenwood Park? What location for a zoo would draw the biggest crowds? How much would well-heeled donors be willing to give to build this new attraction?
The questions are not easy to answer and Baton Rouge is not alone in asking them. Communities around the country are also dealing with the issue, asking themselves what to do with their aging zoos, how much money to pump into them, and whether it makes more sense to relocate, renovate, scale down or, perhaps, even close altogether.
“Almost every zoo in the country grapples with how to continue to maintain and improve their infrastructure and there are conversations happening all across the country,” says David Walsh, a national zoo consultant with the Pennsylvania-based firm Zoo Advisors. “A lot of people say they’d like to start from scratch. You hear that talk from time to time, but it is expensive to do that. It comes down to a dollar question. What’s the business model? The sustainability factor?”
There’s no single answer. But in a city that’s just 80 miles upriver from one of the nation’s best zoos, the Audubon Zoo, in a state that recently turned its nose up at a gasoline tax hike to fund desperately needed highway and bridge projects, some are questioning whether Baton Rouge needs a zoo at all, much less one that will cost $110 million, regardless of its location.
At its June 22 meeting, the BREC commission heard from dozens of public speakers, who weighed in one side of the zoo debate or the other. One thing they all agreed on is this: Something has to be done with the zoo. At its current location, in its current condition, it’s not sustainable for the long term.
Between 2012 and 2016, attendance fell more than 11% and revenues declined more than 7%, yet expenses increased nearly 34%. There’s no sign the tide will turn.
Critics of BREC and its relocation proposal say part of the problem is BREC doesn’t do enough to promote the zoo, adding there are plenty of opportunities to advertise the attraction with highway signage, for instance, that BREC doesn’t bother to do.
“Where are the signs on the interstate advertising the zoo?” says architect Coleman Brown, whose community group City Center Development District is leading opposition to the zoo relocation effort. “You can go to DOTD and get a sign for free that advertises an exit for an attraction off the highway. People don’t even know the zoo is there. Zoo management is overlooking a bunch of simple things they could do.”
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