POA
THE NEW ACCESS CONTROL
and GATE SYSTEM By Mark Risner
When Cordillera Ranch was being planned and designed, one of the intents from the beginning was to have a gated community that provided an added measure of privacy in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Since the development began in 1996, Cordillera Ranch has grown from only one community gate servicing just a few homes and a couple of miles of roads in the first phase, to roughly 50 miles of roads inside Cordillera Ranch and five perimeter gates that allow access into the community. Though privacy is just as important to property owners today as it was 20 years ago, the growth and expansion only makes the management of the access control systems that much more difficult. Today, the community faces problems with too many unauthorized vehicles accessing the community through a variety of means. While we have been fortunate that the negative consequences of those unauthorized guests are limited and rare, it’s a problem that the POA staff and Board of Directors want to address proactively and resolve in a comprehensive manner. The biggest causes for our problems are: 1) unauthorized guests “tailgating� through an opened gate behind an authorized guest or resident, and 2) the use of codes for guests to enter the community. Eliminating or mitigating these two challenges is not easy and does come with other costs or challenges, but we have worked diligently for many months with various consultants to come to the best solution for the community, which we will outline here. New Access Control System Summary Here is a brief summary of the multiple different modifications the POA will be making to the access control system over the coming months: 1. Eliminating gate clickers and codes and replacing with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) stickers for property owner and member vehicles, which will allow faster access and better controls for the community. The elimination of codes will greatly enhance privacy in our community. 2. Upgrading gate management software to provide a userfriendly database for property owners and members to update approved guests online. 3. Adding barrier arm gates at each perimeter gate to prevent tailgating. 4. Initiating new access control authorization protocols limiting unauthorized guest access. RFID Access Technology and Upgraded Access Control Software After doing a lot of research on what has worked for other
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communities, the committee has decided to use the RFID technology for access into the community, in lieu of gate clickers. Having a small windshield or headlamp sticker that replaces the need for remote openers and entry codes is a more effective entry mechanism and much more common than clickers today. The encoded sticker pings off a receiver and tells the gates to open as you enter the property. The accompanying software provides a much more efficient system and also makes it easier for updating approved guests into the database. Furthermore, the RFID and software system allow for customized restrictions to set certain time parameters for when certain RFID stickers would provide access. For example, if we have short-term vendor or contractor RFID stickers, the system can restrict their access to certain times and days. The best part is that residents can manage their information from phones, tablets or laptops. It is important to note that at this time the RFID readers will only be installed at the perimeter gates, so residents accessing gates inside Cordillera Ranch will continue to use clickers for access to those areas. Barrier Arm Additions Our perimeter entries will see a facelift as well. One of the current access restriction issues we face is the tailgating of unapproved vehicles onto the property. Our current gates take a while to open and close. This can be corrected with adding drop arms at the entries. The drop arms open and close quickly and allow for one vehicle entry at a time, significantly reducing the tailgating traffic. Look for the property owner/member and guest lanes to be clearly defined and separated. This will keep resident traffic moving quickly through the gates as the window stickers are automatically opening the drop arms. Guest Authorizations The existing camera systems at the perimeter gates will be