KCC is in the news again! Tom Calwell and Aukje Byker of KCC showed reporter Brett Throop of Peterborough Currents around our site at 736 Maryland Ave. Read the article at Peterborough Currents

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 information on our website: https://kawarthacommons.ca/

This newsletter and subsequent versions will have three main sections.

1. UPDATE ON THE SITE AND THE BUILDING 

2. GETTING TO KNOW OUR PETERBOROUGH: What Peterborough area has to offer you. (This month it’s Jazz in Peterborough)

3. OTHER KCC NEWS (including “What has attracted me to cohousing”, part of a series by members)

UPDATE ON THE SITE AND THE BUILDING

We’re making progress!

KCC has now completed the many studies required by the City, with no major problems appearing. The last big hurdle before our design can go back to the City for the “Technical Adequacy Review”—the next step towards rezoning—is the Pubic Consultation, scheduled for July 11 with interested neighbours and City councillors attending. All neighbouring owners are being sent a notice by our urban-planning consultant. When KCC members visited nearby houses several months ago to make personal contact and give prospective neighbours an idea of what KCC was planning, they found people to be generally supportive and we hope this remains the tone.

Another milestone was the feedback from the Enbridge “Savings by Design” team. This is a free service offered by Enbridge to our architects, with the goal of ensuring energy use is at least 25% better than required by the Ontario Building code for projects of our size. Enbridge provided a team of experts in building envelope design, mechanical systems, windows, solar photovoltaics, energy modelling, accessibility, and comfort and well-being. The team used Coolearth’s design to provide recommendations to reduce energy use as economically as possible.

They said several times how well Coolearth Architects had designed the building for energy efficiency. This has major implications. As just one example, the building will require so little heating and cooling that the capital expense of installing ground-source heat pumps is probably not justified. We also received much useful advice on accessibility. Examples include providing some chairs with arms to help people get up, and picnic tables with a space for a wheelchair. Other examples were placing electrical outlets about 60 cm above floor level where they can be reached easily, and installing raised kitchen ovens with a shelf immediately below to hold hot items from the oven.

KCC is having ongoing discussions with Coolearth around keeping construction costs within budget. One big change has been the addition of two more living units at ground level on the same footprint as the original 40-unit design, while still retaining most of the original common space. This will spread the building cost over two more households, a reduction in costs of roughly 5% per household. KCC is also looking into the possibility of funding from a newly announced CMHC program for rental housing.

Stay tuned as the situation evolves.

GETTING TO KNOW OUR PETERBOROUGH:
What Peterborough area has to offer you.

The Jazz Scene in Peterborough, by bassist Craig Paterson

What does it feel like to play jazz?  Maybe it is like surfing? (Which I have never done!) But still. You get out there; you know a wave will come. All your bandmates are there. Then something starts. Everyone can feel it. There is a surge of energy and awareness. The swell grows. One player hits the wave, soloing over the song, with everyone else building a scaffold around her. Then another swell and another solo.  Then with a quiet nod, everyone chases the wave into shore.  And paddles back out for more.

The jazz scene in Peterborough is small, but vibrant. Below you will find a fairly comprehensive list of where jazz can be found, in and around Peterborough.

The most well-known venue is the Black Horse Pub.  Every Thursday night, for the past 10 years, Rob Philips and his band have played jazz and blues there. The local quintet Carpe Noctem plays at Jethro’s every third Friday of the month. Every April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and the Musicians Union Trust Fund supports a number of local performances. And every year, around April 30, the International Jazz Day Committee of Peterborough presents a concert, a “Dine with Jazz” evening with local restaurants and a show at the Black Horse Pub. Bennett Bedoukian organizes avantgarde jazz shows periodically, usually at Sadleir House. Lakefield has its annual Jazz Festival on Saturday July 13. Ken Prue and Loft Productions in Cobourg book quite a few shows.You can find out about local jazz shows on the Jazz Peterborough page on Facebook. Do join us.

And remember the free outdoor concert series Musicfest, June 29 to August 17.

OTHER KCC NEWS

What Has Attracted Me To Cohousing? By Arthur Herold

Primarily, I want to have strong connections with my neighbors.  Currently I live on a street in town where the folks are quite congenial, but my relationships with them are superficial and casual.

I have lived long enough to appreciate the satisfaction and emotional benefits of going deeper in my friendships. I have noticed how connections are particularly fertilized by making common cause, such as working together on endeavours that are the outgrowth of our common interests and values.  

Values are core, and are fundamental to what we have come to believe is important.  When we work or play together based on these, we bond around the activities and concerns that are bedrock to how we define ourselves.

So, when folks come together as colleagues in founding and managing a cohousing community, there is strong potential for the development of connections that feel deep, important, and satisfying.  And the activities that naturally arise in that context, equally so, whether gardening, cooking, making music, eating together, or providing support in times of need. 

There are other factors underlying my attraction to cohousing, but the above is at the heart of it.

Other information on cohousing

CBC article, June 2 - Growing older, staying at home

Kawartha Now article on KCC, January 9, and Toronto Star article on KCC, January 29, in case you missed it!