Bridgewater could host Atlantic Canada's first co-housing community

Atlantic Canada's first co-housing community A proposed project in Nova Scotia called Treehouse Village is on track to become Atlantic Canada’s first co-housing community.

BRIDGEWATER — A 15-acre piece of property in Bridgewater, N.S., could become home to Atlantic Canada's first co-housing community.

"Co-housing is when you have private homes clustered in a neighbourhood and also lots of shared amenities so, you have your private home that's for you and your household and also access to these amazing shared amenities. There's going to be a common house, a work shop, gardens and forest on this 15 acre property," said Cate De Vreede, one of the founding members of Treehouse Village Ecohousing.

Although the concept is new to the Maritimes, the idea of co-housing isn't new to many other communities around the world.

"Co-housing started in Denmark in the late 60s, early 70s, came over to North America in the 70s, some American architects brought the concept over here. So, now we see over 200 in the United States, there are 15 completed in Canada but none in eastern Canada, in Atlantic Canada, yet," said De Vreede.

She says the homes will be highly energy efficient. The proposed project is already 50 per cent pre sold.

"That means we have 15 of the 30 homes are fully spoken for and those households, we're working together, there's no external developer, so we're the ones hiring the professionals to get the job done," said De Vreede.

David Stonhan says he's interested in raising his son in an environment that promotes social connection and looking after the earth.

"It'll be really fun to have other families around so Alfie is able to just roll out of his house and play with the other kids and, to be to share in the day to day life of a bunch of other people and not have to go and kind of schedule play dates," he said.

Emma Savage and her husband plan to sell their home in Dartmouth and move to the co-housing community with their two young children.

"We weren't planning on making a move, we weren't looking to make a move but when I heard more about the opportunity, I was like, we've got to jump on this," said Savage.

De Vreede says they are in the process of getting their development agreement with the Town of Bridgewater.

"Once that we have that development agreement, which we hope to have this winter and nine more families on board then we'll be able to break ground," she said.

Something that could happen in the spring.