MIDLAND, Texas — The City of Midland is moving forward on the Midland Zoo Project. On Tuesday morning, the city voted in favor of allowing Zoo Midland to build a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center on the nonprofit organization's secondary property.
The rehab center will be built on the portion of land that sits on the west side of Todd Dr.
The city's vote is an amendment to the current zoning district map that initially allowed Zoo Midland to use that property for agricultural purposes.
Charles Harrington, the Zoo Midland's project coordinator, said the rehab center will be used to evaluate some of its animals before it integrates them into the zoo.
Harrington also said the property has two fences in place.
"But what we have to do the area where the animals might be put out to exercise or something of that nature, we have an eight foot fence, chain link heavy duty chain link that residential chain link," Harrington said. "So that it'll be while they're out there, they'll be supervised and that's the only time that the animals will really be free to roam property."
According to Harrington, some of the animals will be at the rehab center temporarily, but Zoo Midland still plans to also use that piece of land for agricultural purposes. For example, it's where Zoo Midland is keeping the trees that will be at the zoo, which is currently set to open in 2027.