Located in the historic heart of the 477-acre Irvine Regional Park, California’s oldest county park, the 4.5 acre OC Zoo has exhibited live animals in the park since the 1920s. The project team, consisting of OC parks representatives, RJM Design Group, and Torre Design Consortium, Ltd. developed the General Development Plan (GDP) to serve as a mission-based long-range improvement plan ‘blueprint’ to guide the direction of future zoo operations and improvements to the Orange County Zoo (OC Zoo) through the next ten to fifteen years.

Following the initial data collection review, site analysis, and visitor surveys, a site awareness tour/ workshop was conducted in 2011. The objective of the workshop was to meet with key stakeholders to discuss the planning process, share site analysis information, and solicit input.

The GDP was developed through four specific planning tasks: the existing conditions of the OC Zoo, alternative development concepts, preferred plan, and general development plan. The GDP illustrates and describes the scope and character of the entire project including: infrastructure, program elements, exhibits, architectural layouts, landscape elements, as well as operations and maintenance areas. Consideration was given to sustainable design elements, construction sequencing and scheduling, market and financial analysis, economic analysis of construction, user safety, maintenance requirements and energy conservation.