Study: LV not suited for a major zoo

Thursday, July 22, 2004 | 11:17 a.m.

There once was a vision of a world-class zoo on 250 acres at Floyd Lamb State Park -- a place where exotic animals would roam in wild habitats that would become a top attraction with locals and tourists.

But the man who had that vision, an experienced zoo operator who had leased the acreage from the Bureau of Land Management, gave up that dream in the late 1990s when he turned that property over to the city of Las Vegas to settle a debt on a loan from that government entity.

Still, it took the Las Vegas City Council and a private developer a lot of hoopla over the same dream and a feasibility study, released Wednesday, to reach the same conclusion that Southern Nevada Zoological Park operator Pat Dingle realized long ago -- that a large, sprawling zoo is not viable for the land geographically known as Tule Springs or anywhere else in Southern Nevada.

The feasibility study, commissioned by would-be zoo developer Edward Sher at no cost to taxpayers, found that a large zoo, built at a cost of $150 million to $200 million, and drawing 1.1 million people a year at $9 per adult would still need $29.3 million in annual taxpayer subsidies to survive.

The study by Mike Mitchell of MCM Group was presented Wednesday to the City Council. It also found that a medium-size zoo drawing 500,000 people a year at $8 per adult would need $11.4 million in city subsidies and a small zoo drawing 200,000 also at $8 would need $3.6 million in annual taxpayer money.

Sher said he still wants to go ahead with plans for a zoo on 15 to 60 acres, if it could be built in conjunction with a moneymaking venture such as a museum or other cultural center and commercial ventures. The City Council voted 7-0 to kill the project for Floyd Lamb park but to keep open the lines of communication for a Sher venture involving a small zoo.

That decision irked Dingle, whose nonprofit, three-acre zoo has operated locally for 23 years, and has been ignored during the process of determining the feasibility of a second and larger zoo for the area.

"We looked into the feasibility many years ago and knew a major zoo would not work here," Dingle said. He said his facility at 1775 N. Rancho Drive draws 50,000 people a year at $7 per adult.

Dingle did not attend Wednesday's meeting and his Southern Nevada Zoological Park was not mentioned at the meeting -- nor was it even acknowledged that Las Vegas already has a small zoo.

"We are a real zoo with real professional relationships with major zoos," Dingle, a former North Las Vegas Police officer, said in response to the apparent snub. "We recently got a rare Indo-Chinese tiger from the Cincinnati Zoo, two (Madagascar) fossas from the San Diego Zoo and a Chinese alligator from the Bronx Zoo, one of only 400 on earth."

"We know what will work here. And we also know that when it comes to a zoo you have to be realistic in your goals," Dingle said.

Dingle said he believes Sher's plan for a small zoo tied to a cultural center and commercial entities is doable. Still, Dingle said, there are ways Sher, who was given exclusive rights to negotiate for a zoo by the City Council while he spent up to $2 million studying the matter, could get more bang for his buck.

"If Mr. Sher would instead donate the $2 million to us, that money would allow us to expand and we'd name the zoo after him," Dingle said.

Sher also is undaunted by the findings of his study, noting after the meeting, "I believe we can still build a fine zoo with a great number of animals, but one that is close to downtown and the Strip so that it is accessible to locals and tourists and is part of another cultural activity, such as a planetarium or a museum."

Sher said that while he would like to build it in the city he also is open to sites in the county.

Some city officials had hoped the zoo project would provide a way to generate income to pay for bringing Floyd Lamb State Park back under city control. The park's maintenance alone will cost an estimated $500,000.

"PLMA (Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act) funds may be the way to go," Councilman Michael Mack said.

In 1977 the city, with the help of then-state Sen. Floyd Lamb, got the state to take over what was then a high-maintenance, high-cost headache to the city. However, with the city having since grown to the edge of the park, some city officials want it back for recreational and rural residential uses.

The points highlighted in the study as deal-killers for Floyd Lamb State Park include the state's "passive use restriction" rule that would not allow strenuous activities such as softball.

That restriction could theoretically also be applied to some zoo functions, while the BLM's ban on commercial activity on federal lands would rule out potential attractions such as roller-coasters or restaurants.

Also cited as roadblocks to the project were traffic concerns, including no money budgeted for major roads into the rural area. The city also has yet to go through the title transfer process to obtain the state-owned land as well as BLM land leased from the state of Nevada.