SHRP’s May 4, 2021 Email to Mayor and City Council

Dear Mayor Romero and Tucson City Council:

Thank you again for asking that Tucsonans engage in the Community Conversations process to discuss the best compromise concerning possible expansion of the Reid Park Zoo. Thank you also for inviting us to participate in this process.

As you know, the Community Conversation Process you established consisted of “a mediated, intentional dialogue with [a] representative and diverse group of community stakeholders to discuss potential options for compromise.” Your motion resulted in the Community Dialogue Circles and the Core Stakeholder Group discussions.*

As a result of your work, community members have produced Option G Minor.

Option G Minor raises the bar on intentional planning in Reid Park, which is sorely needed as Reid Park has gone without the consideration of a Master Plan for nearly two decades, leaving it victim to development that damages the park’s overall design.  

Option G Minor as developed and presented by Mark Meyer of the Julia Keen Neighborhood Association and architect Bob Vint, both of whom participated in the Community Dialog Circles, meets all the criteria generated by both of the groups that you convened, as well as additional criteria Save the Heart of Reid Park has put forth. Option G Minor is a win-win-win. Here’s how:

On April 10, 2021, approximately 140 Tucsonans gave over three and a half hours of their time as part of the Community Dialogue Circles to generate consensus statements on criteria to be used in evaluating solutions for Reid Park and the Reid Park Zoo going forward. Analysis of the key elements recommended by four or more of the seven Dialogue Circles that reached consensus shows that this group of informed stakeholders called for the following to be part of any potential expansion of the Reid Park Zoo (details in attached table):

  1. Maintaining or expanding the size of Reid Park

  2. Developing a Reid Park Master Plan

  3. Preserving green/open space in Reid Park

  4. Free public access to Reid Park space

The Community Stakeholders Group met for over 30 hours of grueling meetings from March 27th to April 20th, 2021, and reached consensus on criteria for use in evaluating options regarding potential expansion of the Reid Park Zoo. These criteria are:

  1. ensuring equitable and inclusive access for park users and city residents;

  2. mitigating climate change through reducing hardscape, protecting and nurturing old growth trees and canopy, creating and maintaining waterscapes, etc.;

  3. balancing fiscal responsibility/taxpayer impact with community value;

  4. supporting zoo conservation, education, and entertainment;

  5. providing for open and transparent input from all stakeholders in future planning for the park and entities within;

  6. preserving public trust in leadership and bonding; and

  7. protecting surrounding neighborhoods from negative impacts from the operation of the zoo.

Following development of the Consensus Criteria, many members of the CSG stated that since zoo expansion had not been in the ballot resulting in sales tax funding for the zoo, those funds should be used to improve the zoo in the footprint it had on the day of the vote, November 7, 2017, the footprint it currently has. However, in consideration of the request by Mayor and Council, the CSG proceeded to discuss options for potential expansion.

One group of CSG members supported a plan that included building a zoo expansion on green space in Reid Park, while the other members of the group stated that, if the Reid Park Zoo were to be expanded, that should be done on hardscape so as to avoid decreasing the size of Reid Park, especially in light of the fact that the current Reid Park Master Plan dates from 2004.

They also pointed out that building on Reid Park green space would not meet the consensus criteria developed by the CSG. In addition, any choice to decrease the size of Reid Park would de facto constitute a major change to the park, a choice that would by rights be part of the Reid Park Master Plan process.

The members of the group supporting building on parkland put forward eight changes to the building on hardscape plan that would make it more acceptable to them. The group supporting hardscape building accepted all of those changes with the exception of the idea of reducing Reid Park green space in exchange for some to-be-determined green space of another kind.

Option G Minor is the result of the community process, far more than Option D.

Save the Heart of Reid Park approves of any revised versions of Option G that in addition to the above-listed criteria meets the following:

Reflects accurate pricing; keeps zoo expansion in hardscape; lowers heat index while saving for the Tucson community and wildlife all Reid Park's grassy spaces and trees in various stages of development; refrains from putting up more fencing in Reid Park; saves the park’s sidewalk thoroughfares and grassy areas that were intended for picnics; and protects the park from zoo and animal noises and smells, and protects the zoo from the park and its noises and smells via the natural boundary of Lakeshore Lane.

G Minor meets all of the criteria that emerged from the Community Dialogue process you established as well as these additional points.

Moving forward, Reid Park needs a Citizens’ Planning Commission so that the City of Tucson and its residents can avoid ending up in this situation again.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Best regards,

Manon Philine Getsi Co Chair of SHRP

Lauren McElroy Herrera Chair of SHRP

*A survey was not part of the requested dialogue. The survey was framed with incorrect concepts and inaccurate financial analysis, creating a biased survey. The framing failed to inform respondents that funds for these options would come from Proposition 202 and 203 monies. It was inaccurate in stating that expansion was part of these propositions. In addition, most Tucsonans did not receive notice of the survey. Within a mile radius of Reid Park, perhaps one in six households, which include low-and middle-income families, received notice of the survey, which only arrived three days before the survey ended, or after it closed, in a postcard form that could easily have been confused with junk mail. In 2018 the Reid Park Zoo had 50,000 people on its email list, according to the Reid Park Zoological Society CEO. Individuals on this email list informed us that they received an email a day from the RPZ during the 45 days of the pause in plans to build on Reid Park, which they felt amounted to harassment.  The survey was analyzed for the least-worst outcome instead of the best outcome for everyone.