Could Five Points Park become a wildlife showcase?

Explaining his vision for a new amenity at Five Points Park, Jonathan Katz sums up the logic behind his proposal simply.

“Often, I don’t think our society integrates very well,” Katz said. “We compartmentalize. You have residential areas in one place, industrial areas, bureaucratic areas, parks. I think it’s sometimes nice to see things you don’t expect in certain places.”

Katz, a rabbi at Temple Beth Israel on Longboat Key, is enamored with the idea of creating a memorable, surprising experience for people. Something like, say, an emu in the middle of a small park in the heart of downtown Sarasota.

On Aug. 24, Katz sent an email to Vice Mayor Suzanne Atwell inquiring about the viability of his idea. Inspired by a love for petting zoos that has persisted into his 50s, he wants to have a display area for a rotating series of unusual animals in Five Points Park.

Once a week, he suggests, a different animal could be on display — an emu, a llama, a flamingo, for example. He’s ready to organize such a project and reach out to animal owners in hopes of lining up a noteworthy rotation, but first, he wants to know if he should bother investing his time.

Unbeknownst to Katz, the city was already preparing to have a discussion regarding the configuration of Five Points Park. City Manager Tom Barwin is searching for a potential vendor to operate in a proposed café area in the park on a trial basis. Atwell is an advocate for returning benches — removed in 2010 in an attempt to discourage the presence of homeless individuals — to the park.

As the city actively pursues its options for making Five Points Park a more active and vibrant environment, Katz’s potentially outlandish proposal is not being dismissed out of hand. Atwell inquired about the logistics of the idea, and though she’s not taking a stance either way, she says the spirit of Katz’s plan aligns with the city’s vision.

“That’s where the rabbi is coming from — this would be interactive,” Atwell said. “It’s getting a more enhanced presence in the park.”

According to city staff, nothing in the code at this time would permit the presence of an ongoing animal display at the park. Any petting zoos or animal rides that have taken place on public property in the past have been a part of a larger event, such as the New Year’s Eve pineapple drop.

Planning and Development General Manager Gretchen Schneider said the commission has the ability to revise the existing regulations to allow for Katz’s proposal. At the Sept. 9 City Commission meeting, the board is slated to discuss future plans for Five Points Park — and Atwell thinks the animal display is at least worth bringing up.

“It’s an idea, and I don’t want to let it go unnoticed,” Atwell said.

"It’s not going to change the world, but perhaps in this one little corner, it might have an impact." — Jonathan Katz

This isn’t Katz’s first foray into public planning, and he’s always taken an unorthodox approach when it comes to brainstorming. As a rabbi in Fort Wayne, Ind., Katz teamed with an architect to design a concept for a town square that included a proposed beaver habitat. He explains that the animal has historic significance in the area, and even then, he had an appreciation for the unusual.

“If people could come down and see the beavers, they could have a greater sense of investment in the community itself,” Katz said. “Plus, how often do you see a beaver, in any event?”

Although that idea never came to fruition, Katz didn’t give up on his ambitious proposals. He pitched a similar town center concept for Longboat Key and has taken an active role in attempting to reduce sign pollution in Sarasota. In his email to Atwell, he extols the value of creating a more whimsical community — and he thinks a small, quirky project like this could produce unquantifiable value.

“It just gives us a friendly, warm atmosphere that softens the edge of the world in which we’re living a bit,” Katz said. “It’s not going to change the world, but perhaps in this one little corner, it might have an impact.”

Katz is still waiting to hear from city officials before he invests himself further into this idea, but he’s confident he could obtain a roster of interesting wildlife if he ever gets the go-ahead. The future of the proposal is unclear, but he firmly believes it would be a worthwhile endeavor for the community.

He recalls, during his time as a schoolchild, outside organizations would often bring in exotic animals for the students to interact with — a Tasmanian devil, in particular, sticks out for Katz. With this idea, his goal is to provide an opportunity for residents to have that same type of memorable encounter.

“I thought having an opportunity to experience an animal that one doesn’t normally have interface with might be kind of fun and create some of those ‘remember when?’ moments,” Katz said. “Those sometimes provide landmarks in our lives.”