Zero-carbon, multi-generational community planned
Development in Bloomingdale will be made of 32 cottage-style sustainable homes and common spaces
BLOOMINGDALE — The idea was born from Jill Simpson’s work teaching about healthy aging, and her partner Robert Dyck’s work as an architect designing retirement centres and longterm-care homes.
They found that elders want to maintain control and to remain integrated in their communities when living out their later years.
Simpson and Dyck envision a community where elders can age in place, where community flourishes, and neighbours lean on each other.
They call it To Thrive Together, a multi-generational community planned in Bloomingdale that emphasizes taking care of each other and the planet.
“The idea was to create a place where people would come with the expectation of maintaining wellness as opposed to the expectation of decline,” Simpson says.
“People lead longer, happier, healthier, more meaningful lives when they are surrounded with a support network of various ages, people of different backgrounds and different cultures.”
The community is designed to be sustainable, with a net zero carbon footprint and industryleading sustainable building methods and materials.
Heating and cooling will be facilitated through geoexchange, electricity will be produced through a centralized solar panel and battery system, drinking water will be sourced from a well on site, and wastewater treated on site with a biofilter system.
The homes themselves will all be fully accessible, says Simpson. They will each be about 815 square feet in size, with a loft at the top designed to be used as extra space or transformed into a live-in caretaker unit.
The community is legally a condominium complex, and will include 32 homes and a central hall and learning centre. Each home will cost between $625,000 and $650,000, says Simpson.
Inquiries have so far been split equally between millennials, boomers and elders, she says.
“Young people have very little choice of where to live,” says Simpson. “Young people, especially with young families, to be able to buy a home in the country, you know, not on the 32nd floor, well, this project I think fills that housing gap. Small homes in a rural environment. And it’s nice to have an alternative. We don’t have many alternatives right now with the housing market.”
Prospective members will need to work through a few steps.
The first is to put forward a $10,000 security deposit. Then prospective members must complete four workshops on sustainability, social expectations of living in the community, and the legalities and logistics of living in a condominium complex.
After this, they have 30 days to ask questions and think about the decision. If they decide it’s not for them, their deposit will be returned. If they decide to go forward, the money will go toward purchasing the home, says Simpson.
Even for resale of the properties, new buyers will need to go through this process, she says.
David Brenneman is the chief administrative officer at the Township of Woolwich. He says the To Thrive Together group has been communicating with the township about this project for about a year.
“Their proposal is very creative and innovative. It certainly does check the boxes in terms of seniors housing and sustainability,” he says.
The biggest challenge Brenneman sees to the project going forward is ensuring the Region of Waterloo is willing to enter into a responsibility agreement governing the on-site wastewater treatment system, should the condo board ever find itself unable to continue managing it.
Brenneman says this type of agreement would be required by the province, and needs to be taken care of early in the process; Simpson says her organization is working with the municipalities on this.
Once the organization submits its application for a zoning amendment, the project will go through the township’s usual planning process which will include appropriate studies and public input, says Brenneman.
If all goes well, he expects the planning process will take about nine months.
The site near the Grand River in Bloomingdale was owned by an organization called All Our Relations. Its vision meshed well with that of To Thrive Together, says Simpson.
To Thrive Together formally incorporated as a not-for-profit organization, and partnered with All Our Relations to begin the process in 2019.
Simpson is grateful to be involved with this project that “has the potential to change the way we care for people and change the way we care for the earth.”
To Thrive Together is hosting its next virtual information session on Oct. 27, and will open a waiting list for prospective buyers Nov. 10. More information can be found at ToThriveTogether.org.