What:
Woodland Park Zoo invites the community to an open house to learn more about the zoo's Long-Range Physical Development Plan (LRPDP), including the proposed west parking garage. The LRPDP, five years in the making, updates and supersedes the zoo’s original 1976 plan. It enhances the zoo’s capacity to meet changing animal care standards, the evolving financial picture, the contemporary needs of zoo visitors, and its own educational and conservation objectives. For more information, call 206.684.4856.

When:
Monday, September 13, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Where:
Woodland Park Zoo’s Education Center at N. 50th St. & Fremont Ave. N. Enter through the building’s side door directly off the zoo’s South Gate parking lot. Free parking in the South Gate lot.

Info:
The new LRPDP provides overall guidance for the physical development of the zoo. Its key objectives are to:

• Continue the 1976 plan’s approach, but update the plan to remain state of the art;
• Provide facilities for visitors of all ages for social gathering, recreation, and interactive learning, with a focus on programs that inspire conservation;
• Make the visitor experience the best it can be;
• Develop year-round facilities that create new revenue streams;
• Provide an environmentally sustainable office building that enhances staff productivity and illustrates our conservation ethic; and
• Meet current parking demand as well as projected increases during the 20-year planning period by providing a west lot parking garage. The parking garage and surface lots proposed in the LRPDP would provide sufficient on-site parking to meet current and projected needs on all but about 33 days (in 2020) each year.

An overview of the LRPDP, a summary of the proposed west lot parking garage, an illustrative plan highlighting changes, and a schedule of upcoming public meetings are available for review on the zoo’s Web site here.

Accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, top award-winning Woodland Park Zoo is famed for pioneering naturalistic exhibits and setting a standard for zoos all over the world. With conservation, education and excellent animal care at the core of the zoo’s mission, the zoo is helping to save endangered species in Washington state and around the world including tree kangaroos, snow leopards, red-crowned cranes, African wild dogs, western pond turtles and Oregon silverspot butterflies. By inspiring visitors and others to care and act, Woodland Park Zoo is making a difference in our planet’s future.