New Access Control System for Aquarius

New Parking and FOB Policies at Aquarius

Comments needed!

Please read Policy Paper Below. If you have any comments please kindly forward – in writing – to management office. We Look forward to your input. Thank You!

Your Community Manager,
David Slavin    dslavin@apmanagement.net Email me!

Proposed:   NEW
Aquarius Condo. Association Parking & Fob Policy

May 20,2016           Scroll to the end of the post to see comments. Comments posted as soon as possible

1. New Fob Policy: The Installation of the new Galaxy access system is commencing next week and should be complete in approximately three weeks. At that time management will begin the process of auditing the current Fob inventory, first by posting notices, & Mailing several weeks in advance. Management proposes doing the audit of the existing Fobs on the following basis:- Access Hierarchy: Access Shall be granted to the Community, based on the following hierarchy:

• Registered Residents: Owners or Legal Tenants = 1 Fob per Resident. Photo ID in system. Only Registered Residents will be allowed to self-park.
• Long Term “Permanent’ Guests: Limited to immediate family. Mother-Father, Sons & Daughters. The ‘Guest’ can receive a Fob, which will be activated for period of visit. Does not include grandparents. Photo ID in system. Valet Only Parking.
• Short Term Guests: Do not receive a Fob. Must have a definite start and end date for stay. Must be accompanied by owner on site. Owners must register all short term guests with Management. Guest’s ID can work for access to facilities (Wristbands can be introduced later to facilitate this further). Valet Only Parking.
• Day & Overnight Guests: Must be verified by owner. Owner must also be on site. Does not require registration for first day, but must be registered if stay longer. Valet Only Parking.
• Contractors: Do not receive a Fob. Must have a definite start and end date for project. Access restricted to unit and service elevators. Valet Only Parking.
• Registration: Anyone over 29 days in a 90 day term must be registered.

 –  New Parking Policy: Similar to Fob, parking will also be upgraded by the new Galaxy access system which should be completed by early June. At that time management will begin the process of implementing a new Parking Policy and system, first by posting notices & mailed, several week in advance. Management proposes the following Parking Policy:
A Layered System of Security: Parking will be first step in our new security system, which will be based on a layered approach:

• First Layer Limiting access- By changing the existing Parking system from a Transponder and Card or ‘Clicker system, to a non-transferrable system. This limits access to the Garage to only registered residents with properly processed vehicles.
• Second Layer Clear identification. All new vehicles can only be registered if they are in the names of the residents. To process, all registrations shall be copied to the file, and staff will take a picture of the vehicle and place the sticker on the vehicle. Automobiles shall be identified by their unit #, not the space #. This will simplify tracking down violations. The space assigned to unit will be clear.

All Registered resident’s vehicles must have:

1. Bar Code Sticker and a Valid Decal
2. In addition, those with ‘Parking with Permission’ will be given a hang tag. (See  Parking with Permission Below).

• Third Layer Is a valid fob for entry into the Buildings.
• Fourth Layer West Lot Parking: Only registered residents will be allowed to self-park here. All others must Valet Park. Valet Station will be provided with an inventory of hangtags to use to track (Approximate 100).
• Parking with Permission Agreements: Association’s only involvement with this is for the agreements to be registered, otherwise it is a matter between the two residents. To be valid, all parking with permission agreements must be registered with the Association. On the Registration form, all parties to the agreement (Grantor(s) and Grantee(s)) must acknowledge that all parking with permission agreements terminate automatically at end of the granting resident’s ownership or tenancy at Aquarius. To be valid a Grantees car must have a sticker, parking decal, plus hangtag that corresponds to that space. Management will have a supply of hangtags for each corresponding space (1-269) to be provided on registration.
• Parking Enforcement: Rovers shall conduct a parking inspection twice per shift; 1st in middle and 2^nd at end of their shift. At Boards discretion, any vehicle not meeting this requirement can be immediately towed, or given a warning sticker.
• Valet Cards: To better monitor each individual Valet employee can be given a separate card to track access.

.o0o.

Comments:

from Arkady and Zina Chase     May 21st, 2016
We would like to express our gratitude to the Board and the Management for making steps towards protecting our property from the flow of illegal occupants.  However, as the legitimate owners of our homes, we would like to make them most pleasant and hospitable to our families and legitimate guests.

To this regard, we have several comments to the proposed policies.

1. As far as we are concerned, our Grandchildren are a very legitimate part of our family.  Their arrival for the most of us is a cherished event, and we would like them to feel welcomed here.  We do believe that their movements around the property must not be restricted in any way, after they reach certain age, and we do not need to accompany them any time they chose to go to the beach or the pool deck!
2. Each unit has an assigned parking space, and the right to park the second car in the West parking lot.  We currently have only one car.  However, if we decide to  bring a rental car, we should have the right to self park this car in the West parking lot with proper registration.  Every unit must have equal rights with all others!

Respectfully,     Arkady G. Chase and Zina Z. Chase, M.D.  PH5N

 ♦ Board of Directors and Atlantic Pacific Mgt. will address and adjust policy
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from  Andre and Nicole St-Amour      Owners of Unit 1608N     May 21, 2016

We understand that there have been abuses in the past concerning possibly  undeclared short term leases of unit, but the proposed policies go overboard and are in fact not in accordance with the condo rules concerning occupancy.

These proposed  policies ignore the needs of the unit owners who are not full time residents and are proposed at a time where these owners are not in residency (summer time).

Following is a list of the precise points with which we have issues:

• We own 2 cars and may come down with either of the two or we may simply rent a car if we fly down for a short term period. Our parking space should be available for any of these cars, as long as we register them with the office.
• When we bought our condo, we verified that the rules allowed for our children (and their spouse and children) to visit us or to stay in our unit for a short period of time each year. The rules allowed this and we were told by management that should they rent a car, they would simply park in the West parking and not with valet parking. When one of our children comes down and we are not on site, most of the time they would use our car which we leave in our parking space from November to April, or will rent a car in the summer time and simply park in our parking space. And this is in full compliance with the rules and we have always complied and informed management in advance of all the details. In these cases, they should also be allowed to use a fob. We even paid $50 to have an extra fob which is currently registered with the office in their name. As long as their stay does not exceed the time period allowed in the condo rules, this should not cause any problem.
• The other situation we were concerned with at the time of purchase, was the possibility of having one of our brothers and sisters (and their spouse) visit and stay with us for short periods of time. This is also allowed in the condo rules subject to certain time limits. We also verified that they could stay in our condo, when we are not on  the premises, for a short period of time and use our parking space. In fact in the 5 years we have been unit owner, it happened only twice that Nicole`s brother and his wife stayed in the unit without us being there.
• In any of the above situations it is totally excessive to have such guests pay $10 per day for their use of the West parking lot and to force them to use valet parking.
• We generally only use our regular parking space and very exceptionally have a short term guest use a 2^ndparking space. In fact most of the time from April to November, no parking space is being used by us.

We find the proposed policies very frustrating especially since we had no access to a regular parking space for more than 2 years.

There are other ways to control abuses by insisting that everyone be registered in the office, which we understand some people did not do in the past. We value the fact that we own a condo in a building which does not allow short term rentals and this was in fact important to us when we bought the condo. However we hope that the fob and parking policies will be modified to be liveable for everyone and not only the full time residents.

In addition the proposed forced use of valet parking will increase traffic and create more congestion near the lobby entrance and will make it more difficult exiting by car for those, like us, who have their parking space on the valet deck.

We are looking forward to our concerns being addressed.

Andre and Nicole St-Amour      Owners of Unit 1608N

♦  Board of Directors and Atlantic Pacific Mgt. will address and  try adjust policy
_____________________________________________

from Beverily Weiss,   owner 1005S    

What exactly is the Galaxy system? If you have multiple family FOBs – how does this work?

Answer: Galaxy is a system with software and hardware components that allow for access control of secured properties. It allows for more granular control and record of the use of FOBs or other automatic admission tokens such as stickers for vehicles. In this implementation we plan to have one FOB per authorized resident or visitor. There will be minimal changes the way business is conducted today. Once the authorized FOB is authenticated its use is very much like what we see today. The difference is that several classes of “Guests” will have a limited period of use. After that a renewal of his or hers FOB will require a quick re-registration. 

The garage use will have more modern and functional RFID system. Again the use will be recorded and non authorized vehicles will use the Valet. There are very simple provisions for the authorization of rentals and loan vehicles.

The objective is maximum security with maximum convenience.

Details on the Galaxy System may be found here  http://www.galaxysys.com/home. Please click on the software tab of the site.

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.o0o.