Summary: We now fully own 736 Maryland! Ice storm cleanup. We are pausing Information Sessions; second submission for our rezoning application; update on funding applications for building rental housing. ReFrame Film Festival, and Jane Roberts discusses what attracts her to cohousing.

We welcome feedback and ideas. Send email to outreach@kawarthacommons.ca.

NEW READERS who are asking “What is cohousing? What are KCC’s goals? What will the building and site be like?” “How can I find out more?” will find lots of general information on our website: https://kawarthacommons.ca/.

This and subsequent newsletters will have three main sections.

UPDATE ON THE SITE AND THE BUILDING
GETTING TO KNOW OUR PETERBOROUGH: What Peterborough area has to offer you.
OTHER KCC NEWS (including “What has attracted me to cohousing”, part of a series by members)

1. UPDATE ON THE SITE AND THE BUILDING

736 Maryland Ave. is now fully ours! We completed payment in February, with special thanks to members of our Land Purchase Loan Group. We hope to celebrate by having a gathering on the land this summer - stay tuned for details!

The ice storm that came through Peterborough on March 30th and 31st caused widespread damage to trees throughout the region, and our new property at 736 Maryland Avenue was no exception. On Tuesday April 22nd, starting at 10am, we are going to have a community work party to clean up the broken sections of the hedge, the downed limbs, and the cracked tree trunks. We would gratefully welcome any assistance, from those who can bring chainsaws and loppers, to anyone willing to drag branches into piles and gather debris.

Refreshments and lunch will be provided!

Rain date is April 23rd. Contact us at info@kawarthacommons.ca with any questions.

KCC's major focus over the last while has been twofold - asking the City of Peterborough to approve our request for rezoning on our property, and submitting applications to government funding agencies for financial support for our project. It turns out that both of these things are taking a lot longer than anticipated, in part because funding is contingent on having the rezoning approved, but also because of shifts in the funding programs, delays caused by the federal election, and the reality of how long these things take to process. We continue to move forward with these, but the timeline is very much out of our control.

As a result, we have decided to suspend our information sessions, and put a pause on bringing in new Explorer members, until we have more clarity on KCC’s path forward. We will also publish the newsletter quarterly rather than monthly.

We do, however, want to keep in touch with those who are interested in our community. We hope that you will continue to follow along with our updates in these newsletters. We will announce all major milestones, including the resumption of information sessions, in the newsletter, as well as on our website and our social media.

We would also very much welcome the opportunity to meet you.

We hold monthly casual get-togethers at the Silver Bean Cafe on the third Wednesday of every month at 11am. Please feel free to drop by our table and say hi, or sit down to have a chat about KCC or just get to know us. The April 16 get-together was the last one of the season at the Canoe Museum location; over the summer, we will meet at the Millennium Park location instead. Please let us know if you need directions or more details.
We hold full weekends of social events every quarter, as a way for our members to connect. Our next one is coming up in a few weeks, on April 25-27, and you are welcome to join us for most of the events on the schedule. Please just let us know if you are interested.
Our subsequent “super weekend” will be on July 18-20, and we are planning to have a gathering on the building site to celebrate our ownership of the land. Details to follow in the next newsletter.
If you would prefer to just meet for coffee with one of our members, drop us a line and we will try to set something up.

Details on rezoning and funding:

In September, KCC submitted a preliminary rezoning application to the City for the property, which included a concept design for the building with the building’s location and size, and where vehicle access and parking would be. This application included a Technical Adequacy Review with 16 required technical studies. It also included a proposal for rezoning by our urban planner, One Community Planning; the property is currently zoned “Public Service” from when it was the grounds of a convent.

The City replied in December, with a 22-page document asking for more justification for our plans. Since then, we have been working with Coolearth Architects and their engineering consultants, our urban planner, and our environmental consultant to address these concerns. This revised application has now been submitted. If it is successful, we proceed to the final rezoning application. We don’t expect a lot of NIMBYism from our neighbours, as KCC members spoke to many of them several months ago, and our urban planner has already held one zoom meeting with interested neighbours.

As for our search for construction funding, we applied to CMHC last September for a rental building through the Co-op Housing Development Program. However, this application foundered on the requirement for a minimum 75-unit building for our area, too large for a cohesive cohousing community. Undeterred, we are now working towards a combination of grant-loan applications, probably to the FCM Sustainable Affordable Housing grant (for very high energy efficiency and at least 30% “affordable” units), and to the CMHC Affordable Housing Fund. Keep posted!

2. GETTING TO KNOW OUR PETERBOROUGH

IGNITING CHANGE: REFRAME FILM FESTIVAL AND THE POWER OF COMMUNITY by Kait Dueck, ReFrame Executive Director.

In the heart of winter, when the nights are long and the landscape rests, ReFrame Film Festival ignites Nogojiwanong/Peterborough with powerful stories and a shared sense of purpose. For 21 years, ReFrame has been one of our community’s most celebrated arts and culture events, championing social and environmental justice through the year’s best in documentary film and media arts. The festival draws thousands to the

Kawarthas each year, fostering cultural exchange and connection between audiences, community partners, filmmakers, and artists with compelling films from around the globe.

ReFrame features four days of thought-provoking cinema at venues in Nogojiwanong/ Peterborough’s historic downtown, followed by a week of online programming available on-demand nationwide. Complemented by live performances, media arts exhibits, artist talks, Q&As, panels, and workshops, the festival offers an immersive experience. With a pay-what-you-can model, hybrid format, and focus on accessibility, ReFrame invites all to participate in urgent conversations about the world we live in and the future we want to create. Central to ReFrame’s impact is its commitment to cross-sector partnerships that amplify justice-driven work and connect the stories on screen with real-world action. By fostering these collaborations, ReFrame supports meaningful change outside the theatre.

For those invested in cohousing and intentional community, ReFrame is more than just a festival—it’s a testament to what makes this region such an engaging place to call home: where people embrace the transformative power of the arts, new possibilities emerge through shared experience, and a community unites in the pursuit of a more just world.
Join us in January 2026 and be part of the conversation! Learn more at www.reframefilmfestival.ca .

Acclaimed Canadian filmmakers Alanis Obomsawin and Drew Hayden-Taylor participate in artist Q&A [Photo Matthew Hayes]

Ballet artist Dreda Blow performs following screening of Unbound [Photo Esther Vincent]

KCC members at a potluck to share opinions of ReFrame films.

3. OTHER KCC NEWS

What attracts me to cohousing, by Jane Roberts

I grew up in 1960’s-70’s post-war suburbs called “bedroom communities”, with the perfect nuclear family of Mom, Dad and my little sister. After graduating from university, I started working in London Ontario, renting apartments and looking for a neighbourhood and groups where I could belong. That introduced me to the concept of walkable neighbourhoods, living lighter on the planet. I eventually bought a small house where I could have a quick bus ride to work.

When I moved to Toronto to start my family, I looked for a neighbourhood where my kids could walk to school and we could access many amenities by walking, biking and transit. I’ve now lived in such a neighbourhood for 25 years.

So why am I interested in joining KCC? Why in Peterborough? Why now? The favourite year of my childhood was the year that we had two families living under one roof including my aunt, her 4 children added to my family of 4. With my aunt attending teacher’s college and only my Dad bringing in a salary, we didn’t have much money but we had each other. With 6 kids in one house we made a lot of our own fun which we still reminisce about 50 years later! Then I learned about cohousing. From a young age, I’ve visited the Kawarthas frequently to see those cousins that I lived with for that one year, as well as other family in the Peterborough area.

So, to have a chance to live in a cohousing community in a part of Ontario that I love, is an opportunity I just can’t pass up!

Another kick at the rezoning can