chaffee zoo Archives - Stop and Move

Thoughts on Chaffee Zoo Expansion and Roeding Park (with pictures)

On April 30, 2016November 18, 2019 By jamesinclair

I haven’t been a huge fan of the expansion of the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Not because I hate zoos, but because the expansion required taking a huge portion of a public park and fencing it off. What used to be free public space now requires a ticket, and is only open during business hours (until 4pm for most of the year).

Unfortunately, Fresno has one of the worst park systems in the country, and the expansion reduced the size of the system further. It makes sense to expand the zoo in a contiguous fashion – you can’t
have half the zoo located three blocks away. Also, it’s cheaper to
replace grass and benches then it is to replace an elephant habitat. However, no mitigation was put in place. No effort was made to replace the park space anywhere else, including across the street, in a lot that has sat empty for decades. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : belmton chaffee zoo deconstruction expansion fresno zoo kearney park olive open space park roeding park3 Comments

A look at the construction of the Chaffee Zoo expansion (picture tour)

On January 20, 2015February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

It’s been just over a year since I posted a picture tour of the construction ongoing at Roeding Park. The construction is removing a significant amount of public park space to create an expanded zoo, with more parking.

Let’s take a look at how that’s going.

What I considered the main entrance, on Belmont, is closed off to vehicles. In red, is the fenced off area, where construction is onoging. The yellow line is the walking tour I took, along the fence. You can still park on Belmont and walk in via small entrances. The Ps are future parking, in what is parkland today. Note the massive dirt lot across the street on the bottom, with the blue x. That could have made a perfect parking lot, while saving park space. But no. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : chaffee zoo dog park fresno zoo roeding park woodward park zoo zoo lightsLeave a comment

Roeding Park Destruction / Zoo Expansion Begins

On January 9, 2014February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

A few weeks ago, I was in Roeding Park and noticed some serious work underway. This week, the Bee confirmed that it’s related to the zoo expansion, although the Friends of the Park filed one final lawsuit to halt the project today.

Here’s some of the background on why the expansion is bad for the park.

I also wrote about how the new entrance on Golden State would be bad for the neighborhood. Ironically, the lawsuit filed was because the county had to cancel those plans due to the High Speed Rail project. The entrances to the park will remain where they are today.

The work is taking place at the south end of the park, with a side road seeing heavy deconstruction. Pardon some of the blurriness, it was darker than the pictures let on. Click to read more!