Mapping neighborhoods and plats organized by space
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Casey Cogan
I work in property management and new home construction, and I need a solution to map neighborhoods and plats to keep track of elevations and materials. Most solutions are organized by data, but I need something organized by space. It would be helpful to assign data to a plat and cross-reference by proximity, as different communities have different rules regarding materials used in neighboring properties.
Jon Darbyshire
Hiya Casey Cogan, thanks for sharing with us! Following up on this:
- Could you provide more details on the type of data you would like to assign to a plat?
- Can you elaborate on how you would like to cross-reference by proximity? What specific information are you looking to cross-reference?
- Can you provide examples of the different rules regarding materials used in neighboring properties in different communities?
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Casey Cogan
Jon Darbyshire Evening, Jon! So excited to hear from you, I greatly admire your and Tara's work, especially as an avid Smart Suite user both in my personal and professional life. I was excited to join Women of No Code just last week. Earlier today I sent an email to Rick questioning a timeline, and I wanted to clarify a timeline as to not stress you. I've confirmation of a meeting for August 19th to pitch all the changes I wish to make to the ARC department, of which I am hoping Smart Suite will be one of them, and if I can show proof of concept there, I have already had indications from higher up that they would be interested in Smart Suite in which case I will be so happy to facilitate a meeting between Smart Suite and our leadership team.
- Data I would like to assign to plat
Lot/Block/Section which would appear as #/#/#
Address: we currently have to reference two separate maps to make sure that the lot / address being mentioned are, in fact the same property as builders tend to use the lot/plot/section, but homeowners the address.
Elevation: These come in names such as "San Marcos" or "Whitney" They are also followed by a letter A-G to indicate facade materials and an R or L to indicate whether the garage will be on the left or the right. So this category would look like "Brazos C L" "Richmond E L" "San Marcos B R"
Brick: Brand and a Name of the Brick, example: Claymax - Woodcreek
Stone: This one is not always applicable, so being able to leave these blank without interfering with the data set is essential. Brand and name of the stone, example: Texas - Blanco Chopped
Siding: Paint code and name, example: SW9166 Drift of Mist
Trim: Paint code and name, example: SW9166 Drift of Mist
Doors: Paint code and name, example: SW9166 Drift of Mist
- This may not be possible, or at least feasible at a reasonabile timeline/price point and I may just have to do it manually. I had a hard time coming up with a formula that could do it in Excel and even then it only worked on completely regularly shaped sections. The other extenuating factor is different communities have different rules. For example, in the Lakes of Black Oak, neighboring properties and those directly across the street cannot have the same Elevation, Brick, Stone or any paint colors. So a house diagonally across the street could potentially use the same elevation. However in a different community I work with called Westland Ranch, their rules are a bit more strict: no matching stone paint or brick next door or across the street and elevations have to be at least 3 houses down before an elevation can repeat. This is not an immediate priority to have built out in Smart Suite initially, as I currently do all this manually but have to flip between about 4 sheets of very large papers to do it, so just having it digitally is already a massive improvement, but I'm confident with enough time I can eventually add that feature myself or recruit your wonderful team to help me figure it out as well. The answer is for sure paint colors, brick and stone choices, and elevation, but the exact range will vary by community, and the minimum range is directly across the street and next door.
- I recently denied an application to the Lakes of Black Oak for a miniscule data set that was tedious and time consuming to find, that could so easily be overlooked by a less meticulous reviewer or someone with many applications (which I am about to be, as we onboard 2 new communities while I also maintain the existing Lakes at Black Oak)
The relevant parts of the application:
It had a Lot Block Section number of 44/2/2
Sabine D L
Brick: Claymex - Dusty Prairie
Stone: Texas - Rustic Chopped
Trim/Doors: SW7633 Taupe Tone
Siding: SW7004 Snowbound
So, I had to go through the filing cabinet I inherited from my predecessor, who did this all manually (although he only had 1 neighborhood and I will be working with upwards of 3 at a time and his single neighborhood cannot fit in one filing cabinet, which is why I turned to Smart Suite) to find the applications for Lots 43 and 45 of Section 2 Block 2. There, I verified there was no conflict with any exterior materials.
Now, for across the street. There is no mathematical equation that can do this, as they are different from section to section, block to block, and depend on lot size. Too many variables. This is why having it in map format would be so revolutionary--just click the lot across the street to check. But for this application the house across the street's relevant data was:
18/5/2 (Lot 18 Block 5 Section 2. Had to rifle through the bursting filing cabinet to find this specific application across the street)
Richmond A R
Brick: Claymex - Ash Gray
Stone: Not applicable
Trim/Doors: SW7004 Snowbound
Siding: SW7036 Accessible Beige
The problem is a bit obvious when laid out like this, but when dealing with 8 sheets of paper, 3 of which are A3 size or larger, it is easily overlooked. The application for 44/2/2 was denied because the application that had already been approved for 18/5/2 across the street is using the color SW7004 Snowbound for their doors and trim, which according to this community's guidelines, means that a house cannot use the color SW7004 Snowbound for exterior materials at all, even if it's siding and not trim, so it was rejected and they were sent a letter to choose a different color. The whole application process took about 10 minutes with the unwieldy paper method and about 3 in my initial inelegant Canva prototype. I imagine it taking a minute or less in Smart Suite.
I am available at casey.cogan@inframark.com or +1 281 371 4211 for a more direct response.
Jon Darbyshire
Casey Cogan thank you for the detail. I have asked our CTO (Peter Novosel) to contact you directly today to setup a time to review this live with you. Peter has already implemented a very rough prototype we can use as a starting point.