By LEAH WEATHERSBY

For years the Woodland Park Zoo has been a controversial institution in its own neighborhood, Phinney Ridge. As the Zoo has grown and become more appealing to visitors, those visitors have clogged residential streets with parked cars.

Now, after over 100 years of managing the Zoo itself, the City of Seattle is poised to hand that task over to the Woodland Park Zoo Society, a private non-profit organization formed in 1965. The City Council is likely to vote on the agreement before the end of the year.

How that change could affect the neighborhood is still in question, but according to Irene Wall, who is both a board member of the Zoo Society and president of the Phinney Ridge Community Council, it will likely be positive for nearby residents.

"The immediate neighborhood has been confronting the parking specter for years," Wall said. "There hasn't been a motivation (on the part of the City) solve that problem."

Wall said the Zoo Society Board has already indicated in discussions that they committed to solving the parking problem at the Zoo and that doing so is a necessity if the management change is to go forward.

When exactly those parking problems will be solved is still an open question. The management agreement blocks the City from restricting parking in the neighborhood (by implementing a residential parking zone) until a parking structure which replaces the lost spaces in the neighborhood is constructed. The timing of the project depends on a variety of factors including which site is selected. Wall said that if it takes too long to build that garage tensions between the neighborhood and the Zoo could flare up.

"If there is not a reasonable time before parking relief is available - the neighborhood will not be happy with this," Wall said.

Wall added that the management change should strengthen communication between the Zoo and the surrounding neighborhoods saying that the Phinney Ridge Community Council will be seeking to formalize an existing neighborhood-zoo liaison committee in the agreement.

Under the proposed management agreement, the Zoo would stay under City ownership and the Zoo Society would manage it under a contract. The City would continue to provide funding for the Zoo, including money from the Pro Parks Levy which was approved last year. This change-over was first suggested in the mid-1990s when a Zoo Commission appointed by then-Mayor Norm Rice found that non-profit management would likely make it easier for the Zoo to raise private contributions.

The City Council will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3, in the Council Chambers at 1100 Municipal Building, 600 Fourth Ave. For more info, call Krista Bunch in Jan Drago's office at 684-8801. (