Posted: Oct 20, 2021 / 11:29 AM EDT
Up to date: October 20, 2021 / 2:43 PM EDT
FILE – On this January 21, 2016 file picture, schoolchildren arrive on the Los Angeles Zoo in Los Angeles. A controversial $ 650 million plan would give the Los Angeles Zoo a theme park-style transformation. The Los Angeles Occasions says the Griffith Park Zoo may have exhibit upgrades and new sights like an 18-foot-deep canyon for climbing and a Yosemite-style hilltop California middle with expansive views of a 25,000-square-foot winery, although the “20-year imaginative and prescient plan” is authorized. (AP Picture / Nick Ut, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A $ 650 million plan would give the Los Angeles Zoo a theme park-style transformation over the subsequent 20 years.
Town’s personal zoo within the metropolis’s Griffith Park space would obtain exhibit upgrades and new sights, equivalent to an 18-meter-deep canyon for climbing and a Yosemite Nationwide Park lodge-style constructing on a hill known as California Middle with sweeping views of 1 2,323-square-foot winery, the Los Angeles Occasions reported on Wednesday.
Proponents of the zoo’s “20 12 months Imaginative and prescient Plan” stated constructing the options would enhance zoo customer numbers by 72% to as much as 3 million guests yearly.
However development would devour 23 acres (9.3 acres) of native forest and meet resistance, led by the conservation group Mates of Griffith Park and the California Native Plant Society.
Zoo officers had been holding the Los Angeles Olympics in thoughts as they labored out the plan, stated Denise Verrett, director and common supervisor of the zoo.
“What are we going to do to draw worldwide vacationers to the zoo as a spot to not be missed?” Stated Verret.
The renovation would are available in seven phases beginning subsequent 12 months and be funded by grants and donations raised by the Larger Los Angeles Zoo Affiliation, a nonprofit help group, and presumably a bond situation, the Occasions stated.
The following step for the proposal is for consideration by the Los Angeles Metropolis Council’s Committee on Arts, Parks, Well being, Schooling, and Neighborhoods.
The zoo depends on $ 11.6 million from town’s common fund to help its monetary funds of roughly $ 25 million for 2021-22.
