Glass wall for Windsor's new city hall concerns councillors

Some councillors are concerned about a plan for Windsor's new city hall that would see a glass wall erected in chambers between sitting councillors and the public.

The barrier would act as a railing and would also provide security for city staff.

It goes against inclusiveness.- Ward 9 councillor Hilary Payne

"We've never had a security problem here at city hall and I've been around city hall since 1969," said Ward 9 councillor Hilary Payne. "I haven't seen a security problem so I'm wondering if they're protecting against something that doesn't really exist."

Others councillors also questioned the effectiveness of the glass.

"One of the questions I said is, that glass, is it bullet proof? And everybody laughed. They said no," said Ward 5 councillor Ed Sleiman. "So, what's the sense of having glass? What's going to stop the bullet if anybody wants to do stupid things?"

Payne was concerned for other reasons as well.

"It's going to be seen as an actual barrier between the audience and the council, and I don't think that's good because it goes against inclusiveness," he said.

Blueprints unveiled

Preliminary drawings for Windsor's new city hall were revealed Tuesday morning.

Plans include:

• closing down a section of a road to link the future building with existing building
• located above two parking lots
• five stories high
• about 100,000 square feet (current city hall has only 65,000 square feet)
• more user-friendly city hall
• first two floors used for one-stop customer service
• remaining three floors for administration

Mayor Drew Dilkens, who was voted chair of the new city hall committee, asked to look into the feasibility of adding underground parking instead of building a $7 million parking garage across the street from Water World.

"If we could have 160 cars parked underneath city hall, then that opens up an equivalent number of spaces on the surface lots and in the parking lots in and around the downtown area," he said.

The city hopes to break ground later this fall, though the $34.7 million building won't be ready for move-in until April 2018.