Tourism: Underground Parking Structure
A Key Element
Its new expansion plans made public earlier this month, the San Diego Zoo’s next step is taking the project to the city and beginning the environmental review process.
According to zoo spokesman Ted Molter, the zoo plans to turn its application into the city the first week of June and expects to have the environmental impact report out for public review by early next spring.
The zoo, which occupies 124 acres on the northeast side of Balboa Park, has set a very tentative plan for completing the project within the next 10 years.
Construction could begin in 2005, Molter said.
“All conditions being perfect, that’s when it could start in earnest,” he explained, “but there are other hurdles that have to be overcome first.”
Costs and financing options have yet to be finalized.
Molter hesitated to speculate on where the money to pay for the expansion would come from.
However, there is already a price set on one of the project’s biggest challenges: parking.
Currently the county’s No. 1 tourist attraction, the zoo is visited by an estimated 3.2 million people annually. While the figure has held steady in recent years, growth has been slow, Molter said, and limited parking has long been considered one reason.
The new plan calls for a 4,700-space, four-story underground structure that would serve all of Balboa Park , and could cost $94 million.
According to Molter, the cost was based on estimates from various sources in the construction industry. According to the sources, Molter said, the average cost for sub-surface parking is $20,000 per space.
Within the proposal, the zoo’s current 25.5-acre, ground-level parking lot would be turned into new exhibit space.
While most of the underground structure would be beneath the zoo’s expanded exhibit area, part of it would extend south toward the rest of Balboa Park.
The surface level would be a pedestrian walkway that would connect the zoo’s new entrance to the rest of the park.
The new parking project is significantly more expensive than the zoo’s previous proposal, a $45 million, 4,500-space parking structure.
That structure was five stories, with two of them above ground, which made the project less expensive, Molter said.
At that time , two years ago , the zoo wanted to tear down the Veterans War Memorial Building and build the parking structure on the site.
Public opposition against the plan quickly followed, and the proposal was abandoned.
This time, the zoo brought the public into the process, creating a working group that participated in regular sessions about the expansion project.
Luis Barrios, president of the San Diego County Hotel/Motel Association, was in the group.
Several months ago, the group held an extended workshop in which they created 16 different plans for the expansion, recalled Barrios, who is the general manager of the Catamaran Hotel & Resort.
The current plan is a combination of those ideas, he said.
Other elements include relocating the children’s train and carousel to sites along Park Boulevard. Access to both rides would be through an entry area shared with the zoo.
Also the road that leads into the El Prado area, along the south end of the San Diego Natural History Museum, would be closed off.
The plan also includes a greenbelt area that would extend along Park Boulevard from Roosevelt Junior High School to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.
For his part, Barrios is pleased with what the working group and the zoo’s expansion team have produced.
“I think it is wonderful,” he said. “From the point of view of tourism, I think it will add value to our attractions. The zoo is so renowned that adding exhibits will benefit tourism tremendously.”
He’s optimistic about the city’s approval process, Barrios said.
Molter said the EIR isn’t expected to be much of a challenge for the project, because the proposed changes do not affect any undisturbed property.
