Configuration Question for libgd-2.1.0 Install

OK, So I think I have zlib-1.2.8 installed on my Linux system correctly. I used the following commands to do this:

./configure --prefix=/usr2/lib2 --eprefix=/usr2/lib2
make
make check
make install

Now I would like to install libgd-2.1.0 in a manner where it will use zlib-1.2.8. My goal is to install libgd in a seperate directory so I am attempting to use the following configuration command:

./configure --prefix=/usr2/lib3 --exec-prefix=/usr2/lib3 --with-zlib=/usr2/lib2

However, the output from the libgd configure command is telling me that zlib cannot be found:

configure:12550: checking for deflate in -lz
configure:12575: gcc -std=gnu99 -o conftest -g -O2   conftest.c -lz  -lm  >&5
/bin/ld: cannot find -lz
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
configure:12575: $? = 1
configure: failed program was:
| /* confdefs.h */
...
...
...
| main ()
| {
| return deflate ();
|   ;
|   return 0;
| }
...
...
...
configure:12584: result: no
configure:12593: WARNING: zlib is required - see http://www.gzip.org/zlib/

Apparently the libgd configure script is checking for deflate and is not finding it. How can I make this work with the target install directories as specified above?