years in the parks system while still maintaining the distance requirements for play spaces as identified in the City of Windsor Official Plan. (See Appendix F- Council Report #18001 Playground Audit Report 2015)

In accordance with Council decision B40-2015, the current playground inventory and disbursement of playgrounds across the city is based on the C ity of Windsor’s Official Plan in addition to a number of criteria including, demographics and barriers for park users such as E.C. Row Express way, large water courses and drainage and railway corridors or train tracks. Please see Appendix A for a map that depicts the disbursement of playground coverage across the city according to the City of Windsor Official section 6.7.3.4 (b) which indicates that neighbourhood parks will be developed for the recreation and leisure needs of Windsor residents located within a 0.8km radius. As a best management practice in 2015, the city developed an asset management life cycle costing plan for all city playgrounds based on a 20-year life cycle. This asset management plan has helped to accurately and properly track the cit y’s playgrounds, scheduled playground maintenance, project costs for replacements and develop strategies to better plan which playground units will need to be replaced based on the asset condition rating and/or useful life left. The introduction of the Asset Management levy in 2020 is instrumental in being able to plan and address the replacement of these units once they are deemed to no longer be safe for use.

Council Report C 142/2017 outlined a backlog of 28 playgrounds that were removed from service due to age and failing conditions of the playgrounds and CR539/2017 approved funding in the amount of $7.4M to replace the backlog of all 28 units in 2017. It took approximately two years to complete the installation of all 28 units.

Discussion:

The City of Windsor Parks Department adopted the CSA standard in 1990 for the installation, maintenance and inspection of children’s playgrounds. The CAN/CSA-Z614-14 standard along with the Accessibilty for Ontarions with Disibilities Act (AODA) passed in 2005 and has changed a number of times which has impacted the way playgrounds are designed developed and installed.

The AODA passed legislation in January of 2016 that newly constructed and redeveloped playspaces must comply with current Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which has played a big role in the replacement selection of playground equipment and surfacing in Windsor. Windsor has been proactive in meeting accessibility standards since the first accessible playground was installed in 2007. Since this time of the 136 units currently in service, 54 of them are accessible as outlined in APPENDIX B.

The table below outlines playgrounds in the 2015 report that were slated for removal and non-replacement after they outlive their serviceable life. These units were determined to be redundant due to the proximity to other units currently in the system or the fact that the parkland they resided on was disposed of. To date only six still remain in-service and will be removed once they reach the end of their serviceable life.