Zoo to build $1.5 million cheetah facility in Warren County

“There would be tours and a cheetah run,” said Michelle Curley, communications director for the zoo. The cheetah run features cheetahs, believed to be the world’s fastest animals, chasing a lure for as much as 100 yards.

The zoo has already reclaimed a 24-acre wetlands on the former farm land near the Ohio 63 interchange and is farming organic food for people and zoo animals on another section of the former Bowyer Farm.

The land is off Nickel and Hamilton Roads and near the Miami Valley Gaming racino, Premium Outlets Mall and other commercial development east of the Ohio 63 interchange.

The zoo is able to go forward with the cheetah development - previously predicated on the sale of its existing breeding site in Clermont County - having secured $1 million in state funds. The funding requires a public component to the development.

The zoo is one of seven zoos in a Breeding Center Coalition following a Cheetah Species Survival Plan designed to create a sustainable population and prevent the extinction of cheetahs.

At the Mast Farm operation in Clermont County, the zoo breeds about a dozen cheetahs, 41 since it opened in 2002. It is also used to quarantine and holds large animals during renovations of zoo displays.

In addition to several large holding areas for cheetahs, the zoo’s latest plan for the Warren County site includes areas for “hoofstock” and for rhinoceroses.

“We are not planning on adding rhinos or other animals. It will be a cheetah breeding facility,” Curley said in an email Monday.

Despite urging by county officials, zoo officials have said there are no plans at this point to develop a tourist attraction along the lines of the Wilds, an outdoor wildlife park operated by the Columbus Zoo.

The development is part of the I-75 Plan, headed towards approval next month by the Warren County Regional Planning Commission.

“They could someday be yet another regional tourism destination,” according to the proposed plan.

Dave Marr, who lives on two acres across from the site, said he was comfortable with the idea of exotic cats living across the road.

“It’s not like there’re going to have herds of them running around,” Marr said, although he said he was unaware there would be a public component. “I’m OK with it. It’s their property.”

The zoo has yet to submit a site plan for the development to the county. On Monday, Curley said it was unclear how long construction would take or exactly what the development would include.

“We’re excited about building a new facility and working with Warren County,” she said.