A Look at California’s First Smart Community

Are you out looking for a new home for your, shall way say, tech-savvy family? If so, California’s first smart community may interest you. Westpark Maintenance District in Irvine has the distinction of becoming California’s first smart community, using a new smart technology called COMMON SENSE™ that has been specifically developed for HOA use. San Marino Park in Irvine is the first smart community park in the state.

California’s First Smart Community

From smart homes to smart cities now come smart communities. In California alone there are more than 52,000 HOAs, and they may be the first to adopt the smart technology to create the first smart state in the country. Without getting ahead of where it can lead to, smart technology essentially opens more doors for improving homeowners’ living experiences in their communities, while improving service efficiencies among HOAs. For instance, smart technology can help community managers with the maintenance and support of common areas such as parks and swimming pools. With sensors and the system securely connected to the internet, many functions such as community lighting, irrigation, surveillance, and the like can now be monitored, automated, and controlled remotely. Aside from efficiency, the use of smart technology may also lead to greater improvements in terms of sustainability. It can result to better homes, better communities, and overall better environments for families.

For homeowners, they are also afforded convenience by the smart technology. In Westpark Maintenance District for example, residents can easily look up on their mobile phones the status of their community swimming pool, whether it’s currently occupied for swim team practice or not. They can also check the temperature of the swimming pool or report an issue to management. All this information is available on a dashboard which is updated in real-time. The San Marino Park swimming pool’s water quality is also tested every 15 minutes. The information is sent securely through the cloud and the smart system adjusts accordingly, helping it meet critical California Title 22 code regulations. The law requires commercial pools to be tested and for that information to be logged daily.

What’s Next for California’s First Smart Community?

Westpark Maintenance District is the pilot community for the smart technology and given its success, there’s no reason why other communities in California will not follow suit. As homeowners become more discerning about the modern amenities made available to them by the community and HOA, smart technology will play a bigger role in making life-enhancing living innovations a reality.