Crowley Approves New Zoo Entrance

Milwaukee County Zoo Entrance sign. Photo by Graham Kilmer, Jan. 30, 2024.

County Executive David Crowley signed off on a $1.7 million project for the Milwaukee County Zoo Tuesday.

The money will pay for the planning and design of a new entrance for the zoo, as Urban Milwaukee previously reported. The current entrance requires cars to queue up at ticketing stations, and this causes backups to W. Bluemound Rd. on busy days. Beyond the inefficiency, zoo officials are concerned about the safety of patrons whose cars are lined up on Bluemound Rd. waiting to get in.

Using funds from the county’s 2023 end-of-year budget surplus, Sup. Shawn Rolland sponsored legislation funding the plan and design of a new entrance situated outside the zoo’s entrance pavilion. This configuration allows patrons to enter the zoo grounds and park before paying their admission and entering.

For many years, Crowley said, the county has struggled against a large backlog of infrastructure projects with limited funding to take them on. Last year the county added a new 0.4% sales tax. Thanks to that additional revenue, the county began the fiscal year in 2024 with a projected budget surplus for the first time in decades. Policymakers allocated some of the leftover budget from 2023 to the zoo project without wondering whether they would need it to balance the budget at the end of 2024.

“And this means that rather than determining what potential cuts would have been least harmful for this community, Milwaukee County now has the opportunity to deploy the most beneficial investments for all of our residents to enjoy,” Crowley said.

Typically a large infrastructure project would be funded through the budget process. But the board approved this funding in late December, after the budget was passed.  If planning and design are finished by the end of 2024, the county board could consider construction funding in next year’s budget — as is often the process for infrastructure projects.

The new project will make visiting the zoo safer and easier, Rolland said Tuesday. “We’re always trying to figure out ways to make the experience better, safer, more fun for families here and elsewhere to come to the zoo and have a great time,” he said.

Zoo Director Amos Morris told Urban Milwaukee that the current ticketing area will likely be moved to just outside the entrance pavilion. The likely location for a more aesthetically appealing ticketing gate, he said, is just beyond the pavilion’s awning, where a large planter currently sits.

Currently, on high-traffic days, zoo workers spend a lot of time “engaging our guests as they sit in line for an extended period of time,” Morris said.

“They meet frustration, irritation, at sitting in line, and that’s not what we want folks to experience when they make the decision to spend their dollars with us,” he said. “We want them to have a smooth entrance into the zoo.”

12►