Hogle Zoo seeking $65M bond

After using their last public bond dollars in 2006, Hogle Zoo leaders plan to ask for more to complete a zoo renovation — and this time, they want a $65 million bond.

Zoo officials want Salt Lake County to include the bond on the November ballot. The County Council is scheduled to discuss the bond Tuesday.

Councilman Jeff Allen, who also serves on the zoo board, said that although he is in favor of putting the $65 million bond on the ballot, he also worries about the county's financial future.

"I'm a little torn," Allen said. "I worry about our financial needs. We've got a lot of things pulling at us: roads, education, the list goes on and on."

The zoo wants $85 million to complete its master plan. Of that amount, $20 million would come from private donors.

"It would go towards a myriad of things and facilities," zoo spokeswoman Holly Braithwaite said. "We want to do it right, but we don't have the money to build an Asian Highlands or an Elephant Encounter every year," she added, referring to two zoo exhibits created in the last few years.

Braithwaite would not elaborate on details of the new bond request, saying the zoo wants to go to the County Council before discussing it publicly.

The zoo receives funds through an appropriation from the Legislature; tax revenue from the Zoo, Arts and Parks (ZAP) program; and private donations. But it's not enough to finance the multimillion-dollar exhibits.

In 2003, Salt Lake City voters approved a $10.2 million general-obligation bond for zoo upgrades. Seventy percent of voters approved the bond, which paid for the zoo to redo the entry plaza in 2001 and create the Elephant Encounters exhibit in 2005 and the Asian Highlands exhibit in 2006.

The zoo's master plan calls for another nine to 10 significant projects. A priority is redoing the polar-bear exhibit, which was shut down in 2003 after polar bear Andy swallowed a glove tossed into his enclosure and died. A new exhibit would be much larger than the former and have a more natural habitat, with an underwater viewing tank.

Other projects include upgrading the veterinary hospital and building an African Savannah exhibit, a new area for the penguins and a tropical-habitat facility that would replace the current small-animal building.

"Those are things on our eventual wish list," Braithwaite said.