$7M Celestial Beacon gets council green light, will change waterfront
The Celestial Beacon project — which will build a home on Windsor’s riverfront for a historic streetcar — is set to become a reality.
On Monday, Windsor city council approved the $7-million parks and heritage project by a vote of eight to two.
Mayor Drew Dilkens, one of those in favour of the expenditure, described the project as “a fantastic addition to the waterfront.”
“I would submit to every single one of you ... that when you see the final product, it will reaffirm how proud you are to live in the city of Windsor, how proud you are of your waterfront, and most importantly, how proud you should be of your transportation history.”
Also in favour were councillors Rino Bortolin, Fabio Costante, Chris Holt, Gary Kaschak, Kieran Mckenzie, Jim Morrison and Ed Sleiman.
Councillors Jo-anne Gignac and Fred Francis were opposed.
The decision will change the riverfront permanently at Riverside Drive West and Askin Avenue.
As designed by Architecttura
Inc., the site features a display terrace and a 600-square-metre showcase building at the edge of the waterfront and in the midst of the Windsor Sculpture Park.
There will be a concession stand, a bike rental facility, an observation deck, outdoor seating and special event space.
The centrepiece of the site will be a glass-covered gallery space housing Streetcar 351 — one of Windsor’s original electric trolleys, dating back to 1918.
Council approved the plan with some amendments that the patio not exceed 929 square metres (10,000 square feet) and that the site be as natural as possible, with spruce trees and setting into the riverbank slope.
City administration has estimated the project’s total cost at $7 million.
A portion of that cost — $2 million — was previously budgeted for as part of the Central Riverfront Implementation Plan (CRIP).
Administration believes $3 million of the cost can be covered by a grant from the federal government’s Canada Cultural Spaces Fund.
Senior manager of asset planning Melissa Osborne said competition for such grants is high, but “we’re optimistic that we’ve got a very solid application.”
Opponents to the project in the community have argued it contradicts the vision of uninterrupted riverfront green space that city leaders strove for decades ago.
Nancy Battagello, wife of the late Roy A. Battagello — the city councillor for whom the river walk at Assumption Park was named — believes her husband would have been strongly against the project.
Dilkens said on Monday that he remembers when the waterfront was covered by train tracks and inaccessible to the public. “I have seen the transformation, and I can certainly appreciate the effort that our forefathers put in,” he said.
However, Dilkens believes the “impeccably restored” streetcar is also of great public value. He noted that in community consultation, 85 per cent of respondents identified the riverfront as the ideal location.
Coun. Rino Bortolin said it would be “very disingenuous” to hold off now after already investing $750,000 in the restoration of the streetcar and $400,000 in the site design.
Support for the project has been “overwhelming,” Bortolin said. “These are quality-of-life amenities that will make Windsor more desirable for investment.”
For the councillors who voted against the motion on Monday, their main objections were financial in nature.
“My concern is the timing,” said Coun. Gignac, who argued that securing funding for infrastructure projects such as flooding solutions should have greater priority. “I think there will be challenges in terms of our capital projects that will be very difficult.”
Coun. Francis had similar concerns. “It really just comes down to uncertainty. Uncertainty about the budget: We have yet to know what our COVID-19 ramifications are.”
But Dilkens was adamant that the Celestial Beacon project will not impact the city’s necessary work on roads and sewers.
“We’ve got a handle on this,” the mayor assured. “I’d be the last one to recommend moving forward with this project, at this time, if I thought there was a risk we were going to be in jeopardy on some other front. We do not have to cut any other capital project to move this project forward.”
A construction timeline remains to be determined.