What Does Wilton Rancheria Want With Elk Grove’s Failed Zoo Property?

Something potentially consequential is happening behind closed doors at Elk Grove City Hall Wednesday night.

The Elk Grove City Council's closed-session agenda lists a conference with real property negotiators involving an unspecified portion of 8675 Kammerer Road, APN 132-0320-010. The City Manager and real estate program manager are negotiating with Wilton Rancheria Chairman Jesus Tarango over "price and terms."

The agenda does not disclose what Wilton Rancheria wants to do with the property. But the location and the negotiating party make the talks particularly interesting.

The parcel encompasses approximately 98 acres and is part of roughly 100 acres the city purchased for $9 million in 2022 for the proposed relocation of the Sacramento Zoo.

That grand plan collapsed in April 2025.

The Sacramento Zoological Society concluded the project was no longer viable amid escalating construction costs, economic uncertainty and concerns about operating expenses and financing future phases. The project's estimated cost had reached approximately $302 million.

The saga is detailed in the book “Ambition, Arrogance & Avarice”.

Now Wilton Rancheria is negotiating for an unspecified portion of that same property.

That's noteworthy because the tribe's Sky River Casino sits nearby — and because Wilton Rancheria is making another enormous investment about 20 miles north in downtown Sacramento.

Wilton Rancheria is the majority owner of Sacramento Republic FC and is developing the club's new Republic Stadium in Sacramento's Railyards. Earlier this year, the tribe and Republic FC abandoned plans to initially construct a 12,000-seat stadium and later expand it, announcing instead that they would build a 20,000-plus-seat facility from the start. The club says Wilton Rancheria will entirely finance the stadium without taxpayer assistance.

Infrastructure work at the 31-acre Railyards development has started, including streets, utilities and storm drainage. But Republic FC said in April that vertical construction of the expanded stadium would begin later in 2026.

That brings us back to Elk Grove.

In June 2025, Elk Grove News examined whether a tax dispute involving Sacramento's Railyards development could provide an opening for Wilton Rancheria to consider building its soccer stadium closer to Sky River Casino. Elk Grove officials denied at the time that the city was attempting to recruit Wilton Rancheria's stadium project.

Wednesday's agenda shows no evidence that these negotiations involve a soccer stadium, but given that the Sacramento stadium has a footprint of about 31 acres, it could easily fit within the current taxpayer-owned parcel.

But the circumstances certainly invite questions.

Why does Wilton Rancheria want part of the former zoo property? How much land is under discussion? What does the tribe envision building there? And perhaps most importantly, what does Elk Grove envision for the rest of nearly 100 acres purchased with public money?

That last question exposes an uncomfortable contrast.

The city has conducted extensive public outreach over what should become of the former Elk Grove Library building at 8900 Elk Grove Blvd. City officials say they've completed five outreach sessions and an online survey, describing the process as an effort to repurpose the property hand-in-hand with the community.

That's commendable.

But where is the comparable community conversation about approximately 100 acres at Kammerer Road and Lotz Parkway?

The zoo has been dead for more than 16 months. The city itself said after the project's collapse that leaders would consider alternative uses for the property.

Yet Elk Grove residents have not been invited into anything resembling the extensive public process underway for the comparatively tiny former library property.

Instead, residents now learn from a closed-session agenda that city officials are negotiating price and terms with one of the region's most powerful economic players for an unspecified portion of the former zoo site.

Perhaps Wilton Rancheria has a benign proposal for the property. However, taxpayers cannot judge what it has not been told.

For a city that frequently touts transparency and community engagement, conducting elaborate public outreach over the future of one former library while quietly negotiating the disposition of part of nearly 100 acres behind closed doors is difficult to reconcile.

Until Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen fesses up to residents what it plans for the former zoo property — and gives them a meaningful opportunity to weigh in — claims of transparency again ring hollow.

Otherwise, Elk Grove may once again be watching another major development deal take shape where too many of the important decisions are made in the back room.