MIDLAND, Texas — Many Midlanders are more than excited about the new zoo coming to Midland.
The City of Midland heard some updates and got a look at some renderings at Tuesday's city council meeting.
“They took the first step towards their wildlife rehabilitation," City Councilwoman Amy Stretcher Burkes said.
It's the first of hopefully many positive steps that will be taken regarding the "The Preserve at Midland Project" which, of course, features a new zoo.
It's something that the people of Midland have been clamoring for: new and family friendly venues that they can take the kids to for the day.
“When I was out block walking, it was really important that Midlanders have things that are family friendly, things they can take their families to and they mentioned kind of the mom block," Stretcher Burkes said. "I think it's really important for them to bring their children too and give them things to do, so that will be a huge asset to Midland.”
But how much do people really want this new zoo?
Well, ask Kevin Dawson, who runs the Maybe in Midland-Odessa Facebook page and helped announce the project on Facebook.
“Within 48 hours of those announcements, over half a million people have seen those posts, about 125,000 people had engaged with those posts, over 12,000 shares, 4,600 comments [and] 95% of them were excited to see a project like Zoo Midland coming here," Dawson said.
This zoo, along with the preserve in general, will be going into the old Nueva Vista Golf Course in West Midland and it won’t be filled with just cute animals.
The whole area is going to come with a boardwalk to keep everything within walking distance and restaurants to have a bite to eat. It’s also going to be far enough from neighbors so they won’t have a giraffe poking it’s head into the back yard.
Maybe most important, it’ll have a big impact on keeping people in the Tall City instead of leaving.
"Right now, we are at a great moment in Midland history where we've got new schools coming, new health care initiatives, infrastructure is being invested in and now we've got a great quality of place attractions like the zoo coming here," Dawson said. "So people are moving here to Midland and not just with the view of, 'I'm gonna be here for two years' it's no, we're going to come here and make a life in Midland."