Back in March 2019, Kawartha Commons Cohousing (KCC) confirmed its commitment to design, build, and manage what would be Peterborough’s first cohousing community.

Silence has since followed that public gathering at the Lions Community Centre, but that belied the work being done behind the scenes as KCC explored options moving forward — a big one being the acquisition of property for the development of a multi-storey condo-style building where occupants not only share common facilities but also fully participate in every aspect of the decision-making process that governs their communal living space.

“Housing takes a long time,” KCC president Kris Robinson Staveley tells kawarthaNOW. “Our cohousing consultant (Kathryn McCamant of California-based Cohousing Solutions) said we should assume it’s going to take five to eight years. We didn’t believe that in the beginning. We were sure we were going to be moved in by 2023. That was our vision.”

“Back in 2019, we thought we had a different site — then the pandemic hit and that fell apart,” Robinson Staveley says. “But one of the interesting things through the pandemic was we stayed together as a community. We pivoted to having virtual business meetings but also virtual social gatherings to support each other through the pandemic.”

“We had regular coffee chat gatherings. We had Friday dinners where everybody ate in front of his or her computer screen. Some played music but we discovered you couldn’t really sing along on Zoom. That’s a terrible thing to try to do — nobody can actually harmonize.”

True enough, but now KCC is singing the praises of its acquisition of a 1.4-acre site at 736 Maryland Avenue in Peterborough that, in due time, will be home to a wholly sustainable community for some 40 families.

The site is within walking distance to downtown and close to grocery stores, the hospital, and public schools. Maximizing the preservation and use of existing green space, the development will also house 4,000 square feet of common space to facilitate community gatherings that speak to the very heart of the cohousing concept.

Cohousing’s emergence dates back to the late 1960s when a group of Danish families sought an alternative to their urban lifestyle. The goal was to create a supportive community where each inhabitant knew their neighbours; a sharing community where younger families could thrive in a safe setting while reducing their environmental footprint and older couples could maintain their self-reliance while staving off isolation and feelings of loneliness.

The resulting neighbourhoods were called ‘bofoellesskaber’ — living communities. Today, 10 per cent of all new Danish housing follows the same model.

In 1988, McCamant was one of two architects who introduced the concept to North America, billing it as cohousing. While there are few cohousing communities in Ontario, several have been established south of the border, particularly in California, as well as in western Canada including Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

Going back to 2017, Robinson Staveley and her husband have visited a number of cohousing communities to learn more about the concept.

“People were happy to take the time and give us a tour,” she says. “We asked ‘What were the problems you faced? What challenges did you deal with?’ We tried to really focus on that as well as the success stories and tips for how to do things right. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. It’s a complex process starting from the ground up. We have gathered a lot of useful information from all kinds of cohousing communities.”

The subsequent acquisition of the Maryland Avenue property in 2023 was the result of a search restarted in 2022. Robinson Staveley says contact was first made with the property owner in 2019, but “We went off in a different direction” and nothing came of it.

The property was the garden of a former convent, now an adjacent multi-unit apartment building called Maryland Place that’s home to seniors on a limited income.

According to Robinson Staveley, there are 12 households “signed up and eager to go, and another three households we call ‘explorers’ — people who have joined us and are in the very early stages of deciding if they want to become equity members.”

“Whether it’s hiring consultants, or buying the land, or doing the design work, or paying the city fees, we have to pay all the costs as we move this project forward,” Robinson Staveley points out. “So far we have covered our costs, which is the important thing.”

“One of the things that is important about cohousing is that it’s very much run by the people who live there. The model we’re going with is we’re the people who find the land. We buy it. We make the decisions about what the design looks like. We design our units. We decide how much common space there is and what type of common space we have.”

“After you move in, it’s not like it’s all done. You have to agree on the rules for the common kitchen. All kinds of things need to be cooperated on. That has its challenges. We’ve spent a lot of time working on our governance system, our decision-making models, because that’s hugely important. You can’t just say ‘Let’s all live together in peace and harmony and we’ll have no conflict.’ That’s not going to happen.”

Robinson Staveley readily acknowledges that cohousing isn’t for everyone.

“The white picket fence and the car in the garage has a lot of individuality built into it,” she says. “Sometimes neighbourhoods work out great and people are really cohesive, but sometimes it doesn’t work out.”

“We like to call this an intentional neighbourhood in the sense that we choose to say ‘Yes, we want to be involved with our neighbours.’ It’s not like engagement is required of you. It’s an option that’s available by having common facilities that are shared, and by having the vision that this is a place where people are there for you if that’s what you want.”

“More than the socializing is the fact that you make decisions together. You have to compromise. When you live in a community, you have think about what’s right for everybody as opposed to what’s right for (you). That aspect of it is certainly part of the process.”

In effort to preserve as much of the existing green space as possible, the plan is to build up in the form of a five-storey building with the ground floor reserved for a common space kitchen and dining room as well as other shared amenities.

“There will also be little gathering nodes on each floor. If you wander outside of your unit and look down the hall, you’ll see people sitting at a table in the sun, catching the last rays of the afternoon and having a beverage of their choice. You can go join them. That’s our vision.”

VIDEO: Cohousing communities help prevent social isolation – PBS NewsHour

Robinson Staveley says while it’s hoped ground will be broken in 2025, a lot has to happen beforehand, including rezoning and site plan approval from the City of Peterborough.

“We’ve done a pre-consultation with the city. They’ve given us a list of studies that need to be done before we can submit for rezoning. We’re hoping we get the schematic design finished this year.”

In the meantime, work will continue creating more awareness of what the cohousing concept is all about and bringing new members in the fold.

To that end, KCC is hosting Zoom information sessions, with the next two scheduled for Saturday, February 3rd and Thursday, March 21st. Topics include why people choose cohousing, an introduction to KCC and preliminary estimated costs, and how to take the next step toward becoming an equity member.

VIDEO: How cohousing can make us happier (and live longer) – Grace Kim

“It has been a long haul,” notes Robinson Staveley. “The pandemic put a hole in our progress but it’s exciting to see movement now.”

“I’m pleased, and amazed, that we hung in there through years of what was essentially drought. Now things are moving fast. We’re doing design workshops with our architect, moving toward having a vision of what our homes will look by the end of the month.”

For more information about Kawartha Commons Cohousing, and to register for either of the upcoming Zoom information sessions, visit www.kawarthacommons.ca.

Environment Canada has now issued winter storm warnings and snowfall warnings for the northern Kawarthas region for Tuesday afternoon (January 9) into Wednesday morning.

A winter storm warning is in effect for Haliburton County and Hastings Highlands, and a snowfall warning is in effect for northern Peterborough County and northern Kawartha Lakes.

Snow associated with a major winter storm is expected to arrive by Tuesday afternoon. Snow may be heavy at times with a risk of snow pellets and freezing rain on Tuesday night.

In Haliburton County and Hastings Highlands, the snow will continue into Wednesday morning with 15 to 30 cm of snow expected. Northeast winds gusting up to 50 km/h will result in areas of blowing snow giving poor visibility at times.

In northern Peterborough County and northern Kawartha Lakes, 15 to 20 cm of snow is expected, with locally higher amounts possible. Snow may be heavy at times with a risk of freezing rain. The snow is expected to change to rain Tuesday night as temperatures rise above the freezing mark.

Difficult travel conditions will be likely, particularly later Tuesday and Tuesday night. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow. Visibility will be suddenly reduced to near zero at times in heavy snow and blowing snow. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve.

In southern Peterborough County, southern Kawartha Lakes, and Northumberland County, a winter weather travel advisory is in effect.

In southern Peterborough County and southern Kawartha Lakes, 10 to 15 cm of snow is expected, with locally higher amounts possible. Snow may be heavy at times with a risk of freezing rain. The snow is expected to change to rain Tuesday night as temperatures rise above the freezing mark.

In Northumberland County, snowfall amounts of 5 to 10 cm are possible, although amounts may be significantly lower closer to Lake Ontario where snow may change to rain sooner. At this point, it appears that the heaviest snow will arrive after the morning commute, but that the afternoon commute could be significantly impacted. In areas near Lake Ontario, if the snow changes to rain earlier, rainfall amounts of 20 to 40 mm appear possible.

This story has been updated with the latest forecast from Environment Canada.

UPDATE February 20, 2024 – INSPIRE has informed kawarthaNOW the International Women’s Day event scheduled for March 8, 2024 is no longer taking place, providing the following statement:

“Due to circumstances beyond our control, Inspire: The Women’s Portrait Project’s International Women’s Day Event is postponed. Refunds will be processed no later than March 31, 2024.”

UPDATE January 24, 2024 – Due to previously unknown contractual obligations for the NHL on the same date, Jennifer Botterill will be unable to attend the INSPIRE International Women’s Day event. The new keynote speaker will be Sammi Jo Small, former goalie for the Canadian Women’s National Hockey Team, a five-time world champion and three-time Olympian who played on two gold-medal-winning teams. Small draws on her personal experience, sharing exceptional tales of perseverance and drive, to help audiences build cohesive teams capable of taking on the world.

When Leah Goldstein takes to the podium at the Holiday Inn Waterfront in downtown Peterborough on March 8, 2024 for the International Women’s Day event hosted by not-for-profit INSPIRE, she’ll use her story of determination, dream chasing, and overcoming discrimination to do exactly that — inspire.

As a world champion kickboxer, the first female instructor to train commandos in the Israeli military, and a record-breaking endurance cyclist at over 50 years old, Goldstein has had no shortage of people telling her what she could and could not do throughout her life. But, as she’ll be sharing with the women in the room on the event day, her mental strength pushed her to achieve the goals she set for herself.

“I wasn’t going to let somebody decide for me what I can and can’t do or let someone make me feel so bad that I don’t pursue my dreams,” she says. “You can’t always run from your problems. You have to hit them straight on because, if you keep running, one day there’s nowhere to run.”

Goldstein first learned the power of the mind while attending elementary school as a child raised in Vancouver. With an accent from parents who had just emigrated from Israel, Goldstein was heavily picked on and bullied by her peers for looking and sounding different.

After seeing Bruce Lee fighting 30 people at once on a television program, Goldstein worked hard to earn a second-degree black belt in taekwondo before training in kickboxing at just 13 years of age. After disguising herself to train with and fight against the boys when women were not allowed in boxing clubs, she realized her bullies didn’t actually want to fight her, but rather were just trying to scare her.

“The whole thing was about mental strength being more powerful than physical strength,” she says, adding she never ended up having to fight with any classmates. “It gave me that confidence that I needed to stand up to people, and that’s what bullies don’t want — they want you to run. But I said to myself that day that I would never, ever run from anything in my life.”

Goldstein stuck by that promise, and after becoming a kickboxing champion at just 17 years old, she trained in the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga (which combines techniques used in karate, boxing, akido, judo, and wrestling), becoming the first female instructor in the Israeli Defense Forces to train commandos before transitioning into the police force.

As a woman in the police force, she was denied entry into a particular project, and she “made noise” until she got special permission to join the all-male recruits. But those in power weren’t all welcoming of her.

“I was very fit, and I could do things that most men could do physically — I could climb and run faster than any guy with a weight-to-strength ratio,” Goldstein recalls. “I was very good and they couldn’t break me physically, so they tried to get me mentally,” she says.

Though the yelling, degradation, and torment would be enough to tear anyone down, as she promised herself in elementary school, she was not running away from her dream to work in Israeli intelligence.

“Once you get up from falling down multiple times, it’s harder to knock you down,” she says. “My motto is it doesn’t matter what you’re doing in your life, you always finish it. Don’t stop halfway because it’ll just leave you with regrets. What’s the worst that can happen? Never let anyone dictate your path.”

Goldstein’s determination, dedication, and refusal to step down led her to create change for women, as now the course is open to all, regardless of gender. But, though she was paving the way forward for other women, she was realizing it wasn’t where she was meant to be. Instead, she was drawn to the sport of duathlon while cycling to the military base.

“I didn’t realize at that point that this was my true calling,” she says. “I just felt this is the only thing that made me feel alive and I wanted to do it full-time as a profession.”

Upon first returning to Vancouver, she was everything but laughed off her bike. She was told she was too small to be a sprinter, too big to be a climber, and, at 30 years old, too old to be a professional road racing cyclist.

“It took me eight years to prove to the cycling world and the national team that I was worth the investment and I could do it,” she says.

The final push that allowed her to get there was a comment made by a race director about her poor performance. Rather than letting them hold her back, the words were the motivation Goldstein needed to move to Vernon, work hard on mastering her climb, and eventually set new records for herself.

While her efforts in martial arts and the police force both came naturally to her, racing did not.

“I proved, in the sport of pro racing, you don’t need a gift to excel in anything you choose to do, because there’s a gift we all have and it’s called the gift of work,” she says.

Though acknowledging she hit her “peak” at 38 years old, Goldstein explains she only held the acclaim for two months before she faced “the mother of all crashes” in 2005. Landing on her face, her skin was torn, her arm was dislocated, and she had damage to several bones in her body. She was airlifted to the hospital where she stayed a month and a half.

“It was considered one of the worst crashes in the history of the sport,” she says. “They said I’d never race again or do anything athletic. They said the probability of walking without a walker or cane was not likely.”

Now facing her toughest physical battle to date, she was determined to get back on the bike before long.

“I made a promise to myself that I didn’t care how long it took or the pain I was going through, I’m going to get back on that bike, and I’m going to race again, and that’s what I did.”

She explains that she slowly started doing laps around a high school track in her wheelchair, and working her way up to doing in on crutches until her body became strong again. In addition to the obvious physical feat of developing her body’s strength back, she was facing the mental battle of getting over the fear of the downhill descent which played a part in her fall.

“I even had a hard time descending in my car when I was able to drive, so that was the toughest part of the transition and getting back on the bike,” she says. “The flashbacks were so traumatic and when that happens, it doesn’t go away.”

Eventually she managed to get back on the bike and, after going into ultra-endurance racing, she won the women’s solo category in the 4,700-kilometre Race Across America in 2011.

Ten years later, after several years of retirement, Goldstein challenged herself to beat her own time. In 2021, at 52 years old, Goldstein made history as the first female solo cyclist to win the endurance race despite her age, having not ridden in a long time, the insulting comments from a competitor, and the “hardest conditions the race had ever had” due to the heat dome in the desert.

“When we talk about Race Across America, it an almost 5,000-kilometre race, so it’s no longer (only) physical,” says Goldstein. “It becomes mental, and women are strong mentally — we can take a lot of pain. So I would say that was one of the biggest victories of my life.”

Since then, she has set a new record for herself again, finishing the race in 2023 in 10 days, eight hours, and 54 minutes.

Goldstein used her 2021 Race Against America win as the narrative of her 2016 memoir No Limits, which is currently being turned into a documentary.

The athlete is also in training for the Trans American Bike Race taking place in June 2024. At 6,700-kilometres unsupported, Goldstein states it will be a “completely different challenge” than Race Across America, though, of course, it will again require that mental determination she’s been using her whole life.

Before the Trans American Bike Race, however, she’ll be making her first trip to Peterborough for her debut speaking engagement at INSPIRE’s International Women’s Day event to speak to the room about living life without limits.

“It’ll hopefully inspire and motivate people if they’ve been sitting on something for a long time to start doing it,” she says. “We put so many limitations on ourselves, especially with age. We’re really good at making excuses of why not to do things, but you’ve got to use that power to move forward.”

For updates about INSPIRE’s International Women’s Day event, visit inspirethewomensportraitproject.com and follow INSPIRE on Facebook and Instagram.

A 69-year-old Peterborough man has been charged with attempted murder and other offences after an incident in Peterborough’s East City on Saturday night (January 6).

At around 11:05 p.m., police were called to a home in the Sophia Street and Burnham Street area where they found a 70-year-old woman already being treated by emergency medical services.

Officers learned the woman had been attacked by her partner several times and had been choked, verbally threatened, and threatened with a knife before she fled the residence and the suspect left the area. Shortly after, police located the accused man at his residence in the Reid Street and Parkhill Road area and took him into custody.

As a result of the investigation, a 69-year-old Peterborough man was arrested and charged with attempt to commit murder, uttering threats to cause death, assault with a weapon (spousal), and overcome resistance by attempting to choke, suffocate, or strangle another person.

The accused man was held in custody and appeared in court on Sunday (January 7).

Police are not releasing the name of the accused man to protect the identity of the victim.

The original version of this story has been updated with a clarification from Peterborough police that the victim had fled the home before the suspect left the area.

Environment Canada has issued a winter storm watch for the northern Kawarthas region for Tuesday afternoon (January 9) into Wednesday.

The winter storm watch is currently in effect for Haliburton County and Hastings Highlands.

Environment Canada has also issued a special weather statement for Peterborough County and Kawartha Lakes for significant snowfall with a risk of freezing rain.

Snow associated with a major winter storm is expected to move into portions of southern Ontario on Tuesday. Snow may be heavy at times with a risk of ice pellets and freezing rain. The snow is expected to change to rain Tuesday night as temperatures rise above the freezing mark.

The amount of snow will depend on how quickly precipitation changes to ice pellets, freezing rain, or rain. Haliburton County and Hastings Highlands could receive 15 to 25 cm of snow, with 10 to 15 cm in Peterborough County and Kawartha Lakes.

The exact track of the weather system is still uncertain and expected snowfall amounts and precipitation types may also change.

This story has been updated with the most recent forecast from Environment Canada.