Threat
The immediate threat to the historic park landscape is the current plan
to triple the size of the zoo to accommodate additional animal displays,
concessions and visitor parking. The zoo expansion, as proposed, bursts
out of the soft, landscaped buffer, spanning the park to the edge of the
river gorge. It replaces the winding park drive and forested hillside
with a 650-car parking lot, requiring massive clearing. In the process
it also regrades the soft rolling terrain into an expansive sea of concrete
and asphalt. The new design dominates the Olmsted designed landscape,
including the views to and around the sylvan Trout
Lake¬. 
The zoo expansion is estimated to cost $65 million dollars, with fundraising and construction phased over twenty years. The parking lot is scheduled for the first phase of construction. The plan has been accepted and is being promoted by the project sponsors, the Zoo Society and the Monroe County Department of Parks.
Although the community supports the idea of improving the zoo, (if not the expansion, as proposed) there has been consistent and vigorous public opposition to the destruction of parkland. Citizens have sent a steady stream of letters to the editor.
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