Residents debate plan for land surrounding proposed mega-hospital during meeting

Dozens of concerned citizens attended a meeting Wednesday night at the Roseland Golf and Curling Club to hear about the planning process for the land on and around the proposed new mega-hospitallocation.

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The acute care facility is to be built on County Road 42 at Concession 9 and part of the planning process requires Windsor Regional Hospital to hire a consultant to put together a secondary plan for the 360 hectare site.

JimDyment, a partner inMHBCPlanning Urban Design and Landscape Architecture,designed the plan and said it calls for green space and walking trails.

"It calls for a complete community made up of a range and mix of housing mostly lower and medium-density housing, office, retail, entertainment," he added.

However, several people at the meeting raised issues with the proposal.

Some said they don'twant to see the hospital built on the rural site, while others stated the planwill be detrimentalto Windsor's downtown core.

"I have no difficulty with the consultants that are presenting their plan here. I just think it's irregular that a major swath of the city is being planned by a consultant that is working for the hospital," said Greg Heil, an architect and a member of Citizens for an Accountable Mega-Hospital Planning Process (CAMPP) which is opposed to the hospital location.

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The secondary plan did have some supporters.

Robert Di Natale, who owns 100 acres in the planning area, said he believes it will attract additional investment, jobs and medical expertise to the city.

"It's not going to be relocating Windsor, it's actually going to be a growth centre where it's actually going to have a lot of professionalism that's going to migrate to Windsor where we're going to have the care like we have in places like Londonor Toronto," he explained.

The plan still needs to be approved by city council, which will consider it during a meeting in the fall.