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Windermere’s Town Council is one step closer to renovating its historic Town Hall now that council members have narrowed the design choices for the first phase of the project, which features additional public restrooms — although the public may not always have access to the restrooms once they're finished.
During the Feb. 24 public workshop, participants were able to eliminate two designs from the four design concepts. Tonya Elliot-Moore, assistant town manager and director of public works, said staff will be able to produce more detailed architectural plans for the restrooms after the council votes on a final design concept March 10.
The two designs that made the final cut are Option #3 and Option #4, which is favored by both residents and council members.
Both options include an additional family restroom.
Council Member Brandi Haines favored Option #3. Council Members Mandy David, Anthony Davit and Tom Stroup favored Option #4.
Elliot-Moore said that residents seem to favor Option #4 as a more “complementary restroom style for the Town Square property."
Town consultant and civil engineer John Fitzgibbon agreed. He also noted that at the last public hearing some residents didn’t care for “having men and women in the same restroom” in Option #3.
He added that the new restroom design will be based on accommodating the town’s public events with “about 200 to 400 people.” Adding more sinks and toilets would prevent the town from having to rent portalets for large events later on.
“It's a cost to the town, and we have an opportunity to add a fixture for virtually nothing at this point,” he said.
The three-phase Town Hall renovation project was expected to cost $1.6 million and be finished by 2027. The new restrooms, the project’s first phase, were estimated to cost more than $418,000 and were intended to be open for the town’s 2025 Centennial Celebration events. Elliot-Moore previously told VoxPopuli that there is no information about new project completion dates.
Once the public restrooms are completed, the town council debated keeping a single family restroom open for daily use and open the other restrooms only when there are town events.
Haines disagreed, saying that was not an effective use of taxpayer money.
“I think that's a huge expense at the taxpayers’ cost to build just for the majority of that facility to only be open two dozen, maybe three dozen times a year, and then we're relying on that one [family] stall in the front,” she said.
Residents have long said they want access to a public restroom in the Town Square area. According to a 2024 town survey that asked "What would you like to see in Town Square?" public restrooms ranked second after open green space. The same survey found residents had “expressed frustration with the absence of permanent public restrooms, especially when there are public events.”
Haines suggested installing an access-card system for the restrooms, similar to one used by council members and staff to enter the town’s administration building. “At least residents could have access all the time,” she said. “That's something I think we might want to consider, because I don't want to see us spending [$493,000, which] is what we approved, for bathrooms that aren't going to get to be used by the residents. It's a big expense to not be utilized more than 25 days a year.”
David was on board with the idea, but suggested instituting a keypad rather than an access card system.
“I don't think that we need to leave [all of them] unlocked, for sure, but I’m okay with having something where residents can access them a little more often than just the family bathroom,” she said.
See the two designs below.
