Another Bonnerworth rally at city hall — plus more local news

You’re reading the June 27, 2024 edition of the Peterborough Currents email newsletter. To receive our email newsletters straight to your inbox, sign up here.

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Good morning and welcome to the Peterborough Currents newsletter, where we share our latest stories and catch you up on local news.

This week:

• Over 100 Bonnerworth pickleball opponents protest outside city hall
• Fleming College cancels plans to expand into Toronto suburbs
• Man drowns at Beavermead Beach days before lifeguard program begins
• The 2022 Derecho windstorm claims one more tree
• New federal funding for youth substance use prevention

But first, my colleague Brett checks in with Kawartha Commons Cohousing, a group that is working towards building Peterborough’s first cohousing community.

Let’s get to it!

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Co-housing community forges ahead, despite delays and cost increases

A few weeks ago, Currents reporter Brett Throop met with Tom Calwell and Aukje Byker at 736 Maryland Avenue in Peterborough’s west end.

Calwell and Byker are two members of Kawartha Commons Cohousing, a group that purchased the 1.4-acre property last year. Currently, 736 Maryland is an undeveloped lot populated by pine, walnut and birch trees. 

But to Byker, Calwell, and other members of Kawartha Commons, the property is their future home. The group plans to build a 6-storey, 40-unit cohousing community on the site. (They also intend to preserve as many of the trees as possible, Calwell said.)

In a cohousing community, residents live in private, fully-equipped suites but share extensive common spaces, such as recreation areas, kitchens, gardens and guest rooms. That balance between privacy and community is what appeals to Byker. “[I’ll] have my own private space, which is great. But I can step out my door and have community,” said the retired college professor, who currently lives alone.

The development will be organized as a condominium building, with individuals owning their private condo units but maintaining access to the shared common spaces, as well.

Kawartha Commons members have been planning their cohousing community for over six years. During that time, the group has forged bonds that have helped them to stay committed to the vision.

“Most of us didn’t know each other when we started this, but now we’re really good friends,” said Byker. “The connection between people is what really keeps us going.”

The surge in property values over the last few years dashed members’ hopes that the project would be more affordable than a regular private market condo, according to Calwell. “We’re finding it really difficult to have it affordable for any of us right now,” he said. The price for a condo in the building will start around $600,000, according to the group’s website.

That’s a barrier for some people, Calwell said. So, the group is exploring whether federal funding programs might be able to make the project more affordable, he said.

To learn more about Kawartha Commons Cohousing and their vision for a new kind of housing development in Peterborough, read Brett’s full story on the Currents website.

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Other stories to watch

FLEMING FALLOUT IN STOUFFVILLE

Fleming College was planning an expansion into the suburbs of Toronto but put the idea on hold in the wake of the federal government’s cap on international students.

The college signed a memorandum of understanding with the Town of Stouffville last fall that committed “to explore the potential of having a campus in Stouffville,” according to a blog post by Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt last week. But in May, college president Maureen Adamson wrote to Lovatt to say that the college was “unable to proceed” with the new campus.

In her letter, Adamson stated that the college was set to lose more than $38 million in revenue from its “quality private partner,” referring to the Trebas Institute, a private college that licenses Fleming curriculum and delivers it to international students at a campus in midtown Toronto. Adamson has previously stated that the Toronto campus might have to shut down as a result of the new federal policies. “If there is any relief from the province regarding our private partner and its continued viability, we would most certainly want to continue our conversation with you,” Adamson wrote in the letter to the Stouffville mayor.

A Fleming spokesperson told Currents by email that the college’s goal was “to provide high-quality education that meets the needs of today’s labour market” in Stouffville. The Stouffville campus would not have been operated by Trebas Institute, the spokesperson said, and it would have been open to domestic and international students.

NICHOLLS OVAL TREE REMOVED

A tree that used to provide shade along the Rotary Trail was cut down this week. It was another victim of the Derecho windstorm of 2022, according to the city’s spokesperson Brendan Wedley. The tree, which stood next to the former folk festival stage, was damaged in the 2022 storm, Wedley stated. The city monitored the tree and recently determined it had deteriorated and posed a safety risk so had to be removed, Wedley explained.

YOUTH SUBSTANCE USE PREVENTION

Peterborough Public Health (PPH) will receive $125,000 over 18 months to support efforts to reduce youth substance use, the federal government announced yesterday. The funding will support youth-serving sectors and community members “to work upstream to influence risk and protective factors associated with substance use,” according to a backgrounder from the Public Health Agency of Canada. In its own announcement, PPH said it would share more details about the initiative in the fall.

LITTLE LAKE DROWNING

A 22-year-old man died on Monday after first responders rescued him from Little Lake, according to a media release from the Peterborough Police. First responders were called to Little Lake around 5:15 p.m. on Sunday evening and learned that a man had failed to emerge from the water, police stated. First responders located the man, resuscitated him, and took him to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre, where he died the next day, according to police.

Footage from Global News Peterborough shows the incident took place at the Beavermead Beach, where lifeguards will not be on duty until June 29.

ANOTHER BONNERWORTH RALLY

More than 100 protestors gathered outside city hall on Monday evening to once again voice their opposition to the city’s $4.4 million Bonnerworth Park redevelopment plan, which would add 16 pickleball courts and a parking lot where there is currently a baseball diamond and green space. It was the second city council meeting in a row to be crashed by opponents of the proposed pickleball complex. And just like last time, the blinds were drawn in council chambers, blocking the protestors from view as councillors went about their business during the final city council meeting before they go on break for July. (Pickleball wasn’t on councillors’ agenda that evening.)

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