The first step to Sacramento Zoo remaining in its roughly century-long home in William Land Park came last September when the zoo informed the city it wouldn’t be relocating to Elk Grove and would instead ask to add 5.8 acres in the park.
The next step in this process could come soon.
During a meeting with the Land Park Community Association at Fairytale Town on Thursday, representatives for the zoo and city discussed how Sacramento City Council could review and approve a memorandum of understanding on March 17 with the Sacramento Zoological Society, the nonprofit that runs the zoo.
The MOU would allow the city and zoo officials to delineate responsibility and to study in coming months what expansion in the park might entail.
“What we’re talking to the city about is expanding, essentially, our lease or operating agreement, to have more space in Land Park to run the Sacramento Zoo,” Elizabeth Stallard, president of the zoo’s board, said during the meeting.
Why an MOU is needed
A city zoo has officially existed in Land Park since June 2, 1927. The zoo will celebrate its 100th birthday next year, according to a spokesperson.
Since its inception, the zoo has been on city land, with all of William Land Park on one 236-acre parcel, per the Sacramento County Assessor’s website.
The zoological society is a nonprofit that administers the zoo, but doesn’t own the land it sits on. The zoo would need city permission to grow beyond its current size of 14.7 acres.
The zoo is looking to expand into two spaces: a former pony ride area across Land Park Drive from the zoo, which city park maintenance workers recently disassembled; and an area with a statue of Charles Swanston, a Sacramento pioneer. The statue was decapitated in late 2022, though its head has since been reattached.
Proposed zoo expansionThe Sacramento Zoo has submitted a request to expand its footprint in William Land Park. The zoo proposes to expand in two areas totalling 5.8 acres, a 41% increase in acreage. 
Source: Sacramento Zoo
Stallard said the MOU had been finalized. It could be posted for public review on March 12, as Dennis Rogers, chief of staff for Sacramento City Councilmember Rick Jennings, indicated at the meeting. The MOU would be nonbinding.
“All the MOU confirms is the intention to look at if this makes sense,” Stallard said. “It doesn’t commit the city or the society to actually doing the project.”
Stallard said the MOU would lay out steps through September. During a phone interview Friday, zoo spokesperson Nancy Smith-Fagan also stressed that the MOU wouldn’t finalize expansion.
“It outlines the pathway to decision-making,” Smith-Fagan said.
How the room reacted
There were approximately 50 people at the community association meeting Thursday, which was held in the children’s theater at the amusement park, across the street from the zoo.
The association formed in the 1980s to oppose a previous zoo expansion effort in the park. Still, there was support for keeping the zoo in the park and concern about expansion.
Bill Burg of Preservation Sacramento said he understood that it “was not the zoo’s doing at all” to remove the pony ride area, but that its removal still triggered alarms. He noted that the pony ride area and the Swanston statue had both been identified as historic resources.
“The pony ride is gone, but Swanston is not,” Burg said. “And so if anything’s happening there, it’s going to trigger a higher level of environmental review.”
One person questioned if the land being sought by the zoo would retain the water feature that cascades down from the Swanston statute. Stallard said there was no definitive answer on that.
Another person asked if the zoo would keep using a crosswalk to reach the former pony ride area or consider having a different type of connection. Dan Simon, who was named zoo CEO in November, replied that the zoo would stick with the crosswalk initially but that “long-term, we can look at other things.”
Stallard also made clear what the stakes of the proposal. “If we don’t get more space in Land Park, we’re going to have to go back to looking elsewhere,” Stallard said.
Councilmember Jennings said he supported “everything that’s going on with the zoo” and that he was “trying to work with them diligently to try to keep the zoo here in Land Park and keep it here in Sacramento. And I hope that’s what you want.”
Jennings then asked for applause if people supported the idea. A steady round of applause followed.
This story was originally published March 6, 2026 at 1:04 PM.
The Sacramento Bee
Graham Womack is a general assignment reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Prior to joining The Bee full-time in September 2025, he freelanced for the publication for several years. His work has won several California Journalism Awards and spurred state legislation.