A voter-approved effort to spruce up the Oregon Zoo’s animal habitats and visitor areas is off to a rocky start.

That’s according to a new report released Tuesday by the Metro Auditor’s Office. The audit examined the beginning phases of the $380 million ballot measure voters passed in 2024.

The Metro regional government was not prepared to carry out the measure, and an effort to revamp the zoo’s entry plaza has been scaled back, heightening risks of steeper costs or projects falling off track, the audit says.

“It’s off to a very rough start, and the processes to get it on track are still being developed,” Metro Auditor Brian Evans told OPB.

The Oregon Zoo is the state’s most popular paid tourist attraction, with about 1.5 million visitors annually.

It’s a major source of cash for Metro’s coffers, with an annual budget of $54.6 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year. Voters also passed a $125 million bond measure in 2008, which renovated about 40% of the zoo campus but was marked by poor planning.

The latest bond measure funds projects for a variety of spaces for people and animals, including the zoo’s tigers, otters, penguins, and more.

Taken together, the projects are “intended to replace animal habitats, improve educational exhibits, conserve water and energy, and increase accessibility,” the audit says.

But those efforts have been beset by poor oversight and project management, and bond funds “were only expected to complete five of the eleven projects” in the zoo’s Campus Plan, the audit says.

While Metro pledged to voters that the bond measure would include an oversight committee, Evans noted that they did not meet until this February.

“Lack of documentation was a key weakness and could prevent the Zoo from ensuring projects will be managed consistently,” the audit said. “Some budgeting and cost tracking processes were not finalized, and risk management tools appeared to be limited for the bond as a whole.”

Specifically, the audit zeroed in on the zoo’s plans to make its entry plaza more welcoming and accessible.

The project has since been “scaled so far back that there’s actually no change to the zoo entry, and the only thing they’re doing at the entry is building a deck off of an existing cafe,” Evans said.

The plaza project’s budget amounts to $19 million, according to Metro, and parts of it are scheduled to be finished in summer 2027.

The challenges could mean projects take longer or wind up being more expensive than previously planned.

Evans said that could have implications for more complicated projects in the future, which are also facing inflation, economic uncertainty and more.

“We don’t want to fault folks for not being able to predict the future,” Evans said. “But when we start to see that things are off track, we can’t quietly rearrange the deck chairs and pretend like there’s not a significant impact. I think that’s what this audit is really trying to do. It’s an early warning that things are pretty off track.”

In a memo responding to the audit, Metro leaders said the scale of its efforts is “appropriate.”

They say Metro has “strong leadership” necessary to fulfill the measure’s goals, and that it changed course on the entry plaza to prevent the project from becoming too expensive.

“The zoo has a strong track record of delivering complex construction projects,” the statement says. “In addition, it has the executive leadership and technical expertise necessary to effectively manage this program.”

Among other things, auditors recommend that the zoo more clearly document how the bond is governed and managed, and develop performance measures and systems for tracking its progress and reporting that to the public.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/21/metro-struggles-to-carry-out-voted-backed-oregon-zoo-makeover/