JEDDAH — The Jeddah Municipal Council is scheduled to hold an urgent meeting with the mayor today to discuss the Beautiful Creatures Zoo, which was closed by the civic authorities on Saturday without waiting for the council’s recommendations on the issue.

The municipality owns 15,000 square meters of the land upon which the zoo resides. The zoo, off the Makkah-Madinah Expressway, is being closed on the grounds that it is now located in a residential zone since the city has expanded so much in recent decades.

Arab News learned that the land would be used to construct a shopping mall.

Saeed Manshi, head of municipal investments, said that they have received orders from the governor of the region not to renew the lease contract with the zoo owner.

Council member Hussein Al-Bar said that the council has been studying the case with a view to finding the best way to deal with the situation and a recommendation report was expected in two weeks.

“The municipality took action without waiting for the report, which is a clear violation of the local government regulations,” he said.

The urgent meeting was called to discuss with the mayor why the municipality did not wait for the council’s report before dismantling the site. He said that the meeting would also discuss the situation of the old city dump, which needs more work to eliminate the stench and the recurring fires.

Al-Bar said the municipality had always been receptive to the recommendations made by the council members during their 29 regular meetings in the past. “This is the first time such negligence happened,” said Al-Bar.

He added that the owner of the zoo presented a complaint to the council after receiving a warning letter from the municipality last week. The council tried on Wednesday to contact Mayor Adel Fakieh about the issue but he did not respond to their phone, e-mail or text messages.

“We sent the mayor an urgent letter on Wednesday asking to wait for our report on the issue, but surprisingly the municipality went on with their plan to take over the location,” he said.

Arab News tried to contact the zoo management for comments, but no one answered the phone.

An official at the municipality said that they have given the zoo owner many chances to move to a new location outside residential areas but he has not complied with these requests.