County Misses Deadline On Zoo Land Inland Empire Paper Co. Had Offered Land As A Gift; Missed Chance May Force Zoo To Close Or Move

Spokane’s beleaguered zoo lost its best chance for salvation when Spokane County commissioners let a deadline pass for accepting the zoo land as a gift.

The lost opportunity means Walk in the Wild probably will have to close June 30 or move to a new location.

In February, Inland Empire Paper Co. offered to give the county 81 acres that the zoo has used rent-free for 23 years.

The paper company said it would let the zoo’s lease expire this summer if the county didn’t accept the offer by March 10. The company last week turned down commissioners’ request for an extension until May 31.

“We just decided that if they couldn’t respond in that time that we want to take a look at some other options,” said Wayne Andresen, the company’s general manager. “We didn’t withdraw the offer; they didn’t meet the time frame.”

Andresen also said the company is sticking by its decision to let the zoo’s lease expire. The company hopes to preserve the land, adjacent to the Centennial Trail, for public recreation, he said.

“It’s not like we’re going to sell it to a developer and have it go into apartments,” Andresen said.

County Commissioner Steve Hasson said commissioners were close to an agreement to give the Inland Northwest Zoological Society a permit to use the land once the county had accepted ownership.

In the past, Hasson has opposed any involvement with Walk in the Wild, saying he feared the county would be liable if the zoo closed or if anyone were hurt there. He said he was satisfied that the agreement, which now will be scrapped, protected the county.

“I was reconciling myself for the fact that we might end up with a permittee relationship with the zoo,” he said.

Commissioners asked for the extension, Hasson said, because the county has a new parks director who isn’t familiar with the proposal. Also, he said, commissioners didn’t want to take over the land before May 16, when Valley residents decide whether to form a city.

But the land grant might not have been consummated even if Inland had granted the 82-day extension. The paper company wanted the county’s assurance that the land would remain a park; commissioners said they couldn’t make that guarantee since hard times eventually might force the county to sell off some public lands, as happened in the 1980s.

The zoological society has missed several opportunities to own the land upon which the zoo sits.

Under terms of its original lease with the paper company, the society would have received the land free if it had made $1 million in improvements on the land within 10 years. The society fell well short of that goal.

In the 1980s, the society had a chance to buy the land at about a third of its market value but couldn’t raise the funds.

At the society’s urging, Inland offered the land to the county in 1992. That deal was ready to sign last year when zoo directors backed out, saying they didn’t want to lock into the contract until they’d tried an all-or-nothing fund drive.

That drive, to raise $1.1 million in six weeks, failed miserably. Zoo directors backed away from their pledge to close the zoo if the money weren’t raised.

Manager Frances Drake said she is optimistic about the zoo’s future, although she can’t say where or how it will survive.

“It seems like when you’re in a real fix, when you’re pushed into a corner, that’s when people come out to help,” she said.

The zoological society may again try to buy the land from the paper company she said.

“I’d also consider relocation,” she said. “But that’s very, very speculative” since no one has offered land.