GUELPH—Calling it Guelph City Hall's "dead" living wall, Coun. Cam Guthrie says the space devoted to a prominent front foyer green feature at 1 Carden St. could be put to better use expanding the staff area that serves the visiting public at the site.

Guthrie says water leaks from the vertical wall and plants intended to filter air and boost its quality have, instead, been dying, at the City Hall entrance. Aside from the $10,000 now being spent on a makeover, it drains city coffers by almost $12,000 a year to maintain, according to a staff report issued Wednesday to Guthrie.

"A thousand dollars a month?" Guthrie asked rhetorically Thursday, terming the green feature "a complete waste of taxpayer money."

By coincidence, city hall is studying ways of improving the adjacent front service area for residents visiting on municipal matters. Guthrie suggested that planning dovetails nicely with replacing the wall feature in the near future with more public galleria and city staff space.

Not so fast, counters Coun. Lise Burcher, a supporter of the biological wall as an integrated city hall design feature with environmental benefits for staff.

"I would not want to mix up the two aspects," Burcher responded, reasoning they're separate issues. She does, however, endorse looking at front-line service enhancements.

The wall was part of $600,000 in green features when the four-storey city hall on Carden Street was recently built, notably a green roof for insulation and reduced runoff, central courtyard, efficient faucets, low-flow toilets and drinking fountains and other state-of-the-art amenities and design features.

Guthrie said a company's been called in and the makeover of the living wall is now underway. "The whole wall is gone of greenery. It's to its 'bones' now. It's under construction. It's going to its makeover . . . extreme makeover."

City Hall reported this week the work replacing deteriorated material in which the plants grow will be completed by the end of the month. It was originally installed in 2008.

Guthrie said this follows weeks in which warning pylons have been periodically placed on the floor by the wall because of puddles from leaks that draw maintenance staff.