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The zoo was poised to begin construction on a 3½-acre expansion that would have included taking over Reid Park’s southern duck pond and Barnum Hill area, but outcry from the public caused city leaders to temporarily halt the project March 9.

The expansion will make room for a new “Pathway to Asia� exhibit the zoo said will help Malayan tiger conservation efforts and also will create a reptile house and aviary.

However, some residents were upset with the loss of open green space and a popular part of the park next to the zoo.

On May 4, the mayor and council members are scheduled to make a decision on the zoo expansion after analyzing information gathered during a 45-day public outreach mission.

The decision will come a week after City Manager Michael Ortega takes all the information gathered from key stakeholders and the public as well as legal counsel to make a recommendation to the city leaders. His recommendation is scheduled to be released Tuesday, April 27.

Two proposals out of eight scenarios for the zoo expansion have topped the list of potential outcomes recommended by stakeholders, both of which require a complete revamp of the initially proposed construction plan and would delay the project for varying degrees of time.

The city began gathering public feedback shortly after the council’s vote halting the project, opening an online site and phone comment lines in late March to gather general preferences for the future of the zoo.

An online survey available in English and Spanish opened April 1. It presented eight concepts for participants to rate their favorite proposals. City workers also conducted in-person surveys on iPads by approaching people in Reid Park for their opinions.

The survey closed April 13 with more than 14,000 responses, the most of any survey the city has conducted. Tim Thomure, interim assistant city manager, believes the outpouring of responses was a combination of the city’s effort to raise awareness about the issue and widespread public interest.

“It’s a very personal thing. Everybody knows Reid Park, everybody is aware of the zoo and many people have been to the zoo,� he said. “This was very tangible.�

Listed in order of increasing cost, the survey options included:

Concept A: No zoo expansion.

Concept B: Continuing with the originally planned westward expansion into Reid Park.

Concept C: Sticking with the original plan and creating a natural resources area next to the zoo’s expansion to mitigate the loss of open green space.

Concept D: Expanding the zoo northwest into 4½ acres of Reid Park, including a baseball infield and some parking space.

Concept E: Expanding the zoo southwest where the park’s Cancer Survivors Plaza, horseshoe pits and memorial benches exist.

Concept F: Expanding the zoo east across Randolph Way into part of the Dell Urich Golf Course.

Concept G: Expanding the zoo north into the existing zoo parking lot, taking over the city’s Therapeutic Recreation Center.

Concept H: Relocating the zoo entirely.

The goal of the survey was to find the three most neutral outcomes, and in the end the most neutral was concept D, followed by concepts C and B.

However, an 18-member stakeholder group was assembled to help recommend a plan to the mayor and council.

The stakeholder group met nine times for 30 hours over the 45-day period to discuss options. Members included representatives from Wards 5 and 6, neighborhood associations, the Reid Park Zoological Society and Save the Heart of Reid Park, a nonprofit group formed specifically to address the loss of park space with the zoo’s initially planned expansion.

“We had a number of stakeholders who really craved this type of interaction and really embraced having a deep, thoughtful conversation about what’s best for two of our biggest community assets,� Thomure said. “One is the Reid Park Zoo itself, and the other is Reid Park, the context within which the zoo exists, and how those elements work together.�

Group members narrowed down their discussions to concepts D and G:

Concept D, the northwest zoo expansion, would take over 4½ acres of green space and 2.11 acres of hardscape while eliminating some of the zoo’s parking lot. This would come with an estimated $3.6 million additional cost.

Concept G, the north zoo expansion, is estimated to cost an extra $15 million to $25 million. This plan would take over the zoo’s parking lot and the city’s Therapeutic Recreation Center. A new parking garage would have to be built and the recreation center relocated.

While the stakeholders were unable to reach a single consensus on a plan for the zoo, they provided the mayor and council members the pros and cons they discussed about both options and established a key question influencing their discussions: What solutions for Reid Park protect ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s need for free, accessible open space and enhance a quality zoo for the region?

“They came to a consensus on what they thought was the most important problem we’re trying to solve, and the most important factors or values that mayor and council should consider,� Thomure said. “They did not come to consensus on a final recommendation for a concept.�

Nancy Kluge, president and CEO of the Reid Park Zoological Society, said her experience within the core stakeholders group was a “valuable process,� but she wouldn’t reveal the zoo’s preference on expansion.

“We’re really waiting to hear the decision of mayor and council. And once we have that, we can start putting the plans into action,� she said. “In the meantime, our focus is on providing a terrific experience for our guests who are visiting the zoo.�

Any adopted concept besides the original expansion plan would call for amending the zoo’s master plan the mayor and council finalized in October 2018. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ voters approved a one-tenth of 1% sales tax hike to fund the project in 2017.

The design for the original expansion into Reid Park was already completed before the 45-day pause. The city had prepared funding and a contractor was on board to begin construction in March.

While there will be a cost for suspending construction, the total price of either going forward as planned or adopting a new plan won’t be known until the city council makes a decision. The city’s already spent more than $100,000 on the community outreach process alone, according to Thomure.

Any plan besides the original idea would also come with additional costs for a contractor to come up with new logistics for the construction project and a designer to re-envision the expansion in a new location. This comes with at least a year-long delay for zoo expansion.

Following the city manager’s recommendation Tuesday, the City Council will have a study session the following week where it will make a decision on the fate of the zoo and Reid Park. Each council member will be briefed individually the week of April 26.

“We’ll be putting forth a recommendation from staff’s perspective of what we learned, what we understand to be the situation and what we feel is an appropriate step, but mayor and council are the elected officials who weigh all of that information against all the other pieces of information,� Thomure said. “We don’t make the policy, they do.�