Palm trees and visitor numbers will both have room to grow at Gage Park's tropical greenhouse if council signs off on a beefed-up rebuild.
The master plan for the east-end park has called for an expansion of the popular but failing tropical greenhouse since 2010.
The city had tentatively cobbled together a "bare bones budget" of $2.5 million to start a rebuild next year, said environmental services director Craig Murdoch. But that would leave the new facility without basic amenities such as public washrooms.
Now, Coun. Matthew Green is pitching the use of Ward 3 area rating infrastructure cash to bump up the budget by another $1.5 million.