If the Toronto Zoo board gets its way, the zoo will run without city funding within 10 years, thanks to a new internal plan.

If approved by the city, the plan will create an oversight body called the Toronto Zoological Society headed by a 24-member board which will include leaders from the corporate world and the community, but no city councilors.

“First and foremost we’re trying to take the financial pressure off the City of Toronto,” said Hugh Mansfield, an author of the plan.

The 14-member zoo board passed the plan Wednesday and voted to forward it to the city manager. Its only opponents were councillors Glenn De Baeremaeker and Raymond Cho, who serve on the board. They submitted amendments which will be considered by the city.

“The City of Toronto is giving $120 million through this procedure,” said De Baeremaeker. “So you want me to give you money but you don’t want me at the same table as you?”

The city gives the zoo about $11 million annually and that contribution is expected to continue, according to the plan, tapering off as the 2022 deadline approaches.

One of De Baeremaeker’s amendments calls for board seats to be saved for three city councillors.

In the past, the city’s oversight of the zoo has had complications. Most recently, council overrode the board and decided to send the zoo’s three elephants to a sanctuary in California.

One of the other issues with the current arrangement, the plan’s authors say, is that money made by the zoo goes to back to the city. They propose soliciting donors and sponsors from the private sector and all levels of government, with any surplus returned to the Toronto Zoological Society.

The plan has received a firm commitment from the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, said Rick Biddle, another architect of the plan and a businessman who has worked on more than 70 zoos. He said no other sponsors have committed.

It’s not yet clear exactly what the collaboration with the University of Toronto will involve but the plan boasts an image of the zoo as a “living campus zoo.”

“The opportunity to create new partners, the opportunity to create new dollars, only happens with the new governance structure,” said Biddle.

The future of the plan is now up to the city manager and council.