Riverbanks Zoo is prepared to bring back some of its most popular residents, the playful sea lions evicted two years ago.
Their newly-built exhibit would be the biggest part of a proposed $32 million loan package of improvements that must be approved by both Richland and Lexington county councils.
On Friday, longtime director Satch Krantz got a welcoming response to the idea at a Richland council retreat.
- Robin Riggs /AP
At the zoo
Conversations are starting about $32 million in improvements to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, in Richland and Lexington counties. Here are some details:
Where would the new sea lion exhibit be?
The exhibit would be just inside the main entrance, probably replacing the current lemur exhibit. The pool would be smaller than the old one, but the sea lion collection could be larger, possibly eight to 10. A see-through wall would make it easier to watch the sea lions play.
The plan calls for a children’s garden. What’s that?
Children’s gardens are a new phenomenon in the botanical garden world — a child-oriented area with climbing structures, whimsical play houses and low-key water features. Botanical gardens often appeal mainly to adults, but they can draw more young people by adding children’s sections.
This would be the only addition outside the current public footprint at Riverbanks. It would be in a two-acre section to the right after visitors cross the botanical garden entrance bridge.
A renovated entrance is planned. What’s wrong with the old one?
It was built in 1987 and designed to handle annual attendance of about 450,000. Riverbanks has averaged 1 million visitors in each of the past two years and is on track to do that again this year. Ticket booths can’t handle the demand on busy spring days or for night events, such as Lights Before Christmas or Boo at the Zoo, when lines stretch for several hundred yards.
What would likely be built first?
Because it is isolated from the main public pathway, the children’s garden would be the logical place to start.
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He said the 30-year loan would cost the owner of a $100,000 home in both counties about $1.20 a year.
“You realize you just got consensus,” Councilman Greg Pearce told Krantz as he finished a 15-minute presentation.
Agreement was elusive, however, on the big topic of the day: How the county will go about funding bus service, now and into the future.
Members did seem prepared to protect transit services from heavy-handed service cuts later this year by covering a portion of a $2.5 million deficit. The city of Columbia already has pledged $618,000.
But council members did not address how to permanently fund the bus system, saving that discussion for another day.
Krantz said Riverbanks Zoo and Garden gets 1 million visitors a year, making it the largest zoo in the South and the state’s biggest tourist attraction.
He’s planning additions of a children’s garden, animal shows and a new front entrance, among other things.
The sea lion exhibit would be the centerpiece of the construction plan.
“We want to bring sea lions back in a really big way,” with an underwater viewing area, public feeding and maybe even visitors swimming in the saltwater exhibit, Krantz said.
“No one is currently doing that, but a zoo in California is on the verge of trying it, so we’re going to be watching that program very carefully. There’s no reason why it couldn’t happen.”
Construction would be spread over two years. If both councils sign on, the new attractions could open to the public as early as 2014, he said.
The last big changes at the zoo, showcasing elephants and gorillas, debuted in 2002.
The sea lions were moved to Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo when their aging exhibit was dismantled in 2009. Since then, he said, zoo officials have been waiting for the right time to request money for the expansion.
On another front, library director Melanie Huggins briefly laid out $49 million in construction needs but said the agency was prepared to defer them until next year. Among the projects on her list are new branch libraries in Northeast Richland and Ballentine.
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