New $6.5M greenhouse at Jackson Park to replace Lanspeary Park complex

Windsor city council gave the green light for a new greenhouse at Jackson Park, replacing the decades-old facility at Lanspeary Park that's in poor condition.

Staff will be bringing possible costs to future budget deliberations.

"It actually turned out to be more expensive to try to renovate on site in Lanspeary," said Jan Wilson, executive director of parks and recreation.

The two options presented to council last night were $7,592,600 to renovate the existing facility, or $6,573,500 to build a new one at Jackson Park.

Not only is building a new facility less costly, the report to council says renovating the old one wouldn't fix certain issues with drainage, accessibility standards and allow for optimized growing space.

The new facility at Jackson Park would be the same size in total square footage as the existing complex.

The old complex at Lanspeary Park consists of seven heated structures, ranging from 10 to 90 years old.

"They are deteriorating rapidly," said Wilson.

In the plan to move the greenhouse to Jackson Park, the city is also planning for an 11,000-square-foot expansion for more in-house growing and opening the facility for additional public access. Ward 4 Coun. Chris Holt said the space at Lanspeary will be kept as parkland after the greenhouses are demolished.

While the city can contract greenhouse operations elsewhere instead of running it in the city, Wilson said it could be expensive with how much the city uses the greenhouse for its gardens.

Staff will be bringing in a rough cost for contracting those services to council as well for consideration.

Holt thinks the greenhouse project will receive a lot of community support.

"It's not just for our municipal beautification products, but it's also for our personal properties," he said. " It's a pretty popular thing."