Condo Living 101

Are you new to condo living? Or just new to Crossbow Landing?

We’re glad you have joined us here in Crossbow Landing. We aim to be a friendly, caring, respectful community of families who enjoy living at the foot of the beautiful Three Sisters.

To make our community work, we have found it necessary to create some rules. If you want to look at the legislation and bylaws that govern how our condo corporation works, please see Legal / Statutory Documents. Keep an eye on the website to be updated on policy changes and other news.

Here are a few ways you can make life here more enjoyable for yourself and others:

Noise

We live in a communal housing situation, not in stand-alone houses. We can hear a surprising amount through the floors, walls, and doors here. You need to be aware that

Your downstairs neighbours are going to hear you
You are going to hear your upstairs neighbours, as well as those on either side of your unit.

So be reasonable. Keep your noisy activities to a suitable time and level, and remember that your neighbours are probably trying to do the same. If the situation becomes unpleasant, we suggest having a polite and respectful conversation with your neighbours before lodging an official complaint. They may be surprised at what you can hear.

This is why the rules are so strict about the type and amount of soundproofing you must use if you are changing your flooring, and why the Board insists on approving flooring jobs. (You can find information on making renovations to your unit here.)

Looking after your unit

Thermostats

Set your thermostat at no less than 15 degrees Celsius. You may wish to consider installing electronic thermostats, which give a much more accurate reading of temperatures and offer the option of automatically lowering the temperature settings overnight or when you are away. A second benefit of electronic backset thermostats is that they make it easier to automatically exercise the heating system and prevent expensive repairs such as to the heat system zone valves.

Gas Fireplaces

While waiting for the in-floor heating system to bring your unit up to a comfortable temperature if you have been away, your gas fireplace will provide a quick burst of heat. Make sure you get your fireplace checked and serviced every year.

Air Conditioners

Our building wiring can’t handle in-window air conditioning units, so our Bylaws don’t allow you to install them. Portable air conditioners might be acceptable; please check with PEKA.

Garburators and Plumbing

Many units in Crossbow Landing have garburators. Handy as they are, garburators can create problems. After you use your garburator please run plenty of water to make sure the ground-up material moves smoothly through our complex plumbing system and doesn’t clog it. You’ll be saving yourself and other people near you unpleasant plumbing issues – and possibly even water damage from overflowing drains.

Be sure you keep fat and grease out of the plumbing. And you probably don’t need to be told to put only human waste and toilet paper down the toilet. Ever heard of fatbergs?

If you are going to be away for more than a day or two, please turn off the water in your apartment. Check our Helpful Hints if you need help with that, or contact us.

Windows

Don’t leave your windows open during the winter months. The in-floor heating pipes could freeze and burst.

Christmas trees

Only artificial Christmas trees are permitted in our buildingd. Natural trees are a fire hazard, and our insurance does not permit them.

Smoke Detectors

Units at Crossbow Landing have between one and four ceiling-mounted smoke detectors installed. They are powered from the unit’s electricity supply, but their alarm function is not connected to the building’s central alarm system. They are there to give you early warning that there may be a problem, before the main building system and the sprinklers react to a serious problem with much greater side effects such as water damage and building evacuations.

Smoke detectors should be replaced every 10 years. Check your smoke detectors. Newer ones have a “REPLACE BY” date on them. Older ones do not. If yours has no date stamp, or the date has passed, it’s time for replacement. If you think this could be a “do it yourself” project, please check out our Helpful Hints. If not, please contact your landlord or any electrician to get this done for you. Let PEKA know once it’s done.

Going to be away from home?

If you plan to be away from your unit overnight or longer, we recommend you close all windows and shut off the main hot and cold water supply line valves to your unit. That way if something like a fridge water line or washing machine supply valve fails, the amount of water that might leak out and damage your unit or others will be limited, saving you a lot of headache and expense (See Insurance, below).

Caution: Lately we’ve heard of situations where the connection on the bottom of the toilet flush tank where the water supply line enters the tank fails, and even though the main water lines to the unit are turned off the toilet flush tank releases enough water to do damage to your unit and others. If your toilets are building originals (the name WESTERN or something similar appears somewhere on toilet or on the inside of the flush tank lid) you might consider replacing this connection and the flush valve. At the same time replace any solid inflexible supply lines with braided stainless steel ones. Call a plumber, or if you have the right tools and skills it’s a DIY job. All the parts are available at your local hardware store but REMEMBER – if you mess up and water does leak, you will be paying for the damage.

Insurance

The Condominium Corporation carries insurance on the buildings and common facilities such as hall ventilation, heating and water systems, and the bare walls of your unit. The insurance does not include any improvements to your unit or your storage cage contents. You need to ensure your unit contents and valuables: all your furniture and appliances, dishes, clothing, and knick-knacks, plus improvements such as cabinets, counters, trim, blinds, etc. If you cause an incident in your condo that affects common property or other units you may be required to pay up to the deductible of the Condo Corporation insurance. You should have liability insurance for the inside of your unit. Talk to your insurance agent about a Condominium Unit Owner’s Insurance Package, and about Deductible Insurance.

Decks and Patios

What belongs on your deck or patio

Our Bylaws say your balcony or patio is not meant for storage of sports equipment, cardboard boxes, toys, and all the other stuff that doesn’t fit inside your unit. And you’re not permitted to hang things over your balcony railing – washing, banners, flags, etc. Comfortable lawn furniture is welcome, of course, and natural gas-fired BBQs.

Barbecues and Smokers

Only natural gas-fired BBQs are permitted above the first floor. Propane BBQs are permitted only on patio decks (If your deck is covered with a grey plastic-like material, propane is NOT OK). Propane is a fire and explosion hazard.

The bylaws do not permit slow-cooking devices such as smokers above the first floor because they involve use of fuels other than natural gas. Use of smokers on main floor patios is strongly discouraged because of the prolonged cooking smells generated. Your neighbours may complain, and their complaints will be listened to.

A piece of advice for people in the ground floor units: please clean your barbecues after using them, and do not leave food out. We are in bear country.

Parking

Parkades and Your Parking Stall(s)

You may keep bicycles and motorcycles in your parking stall if they do not cause your vehicle to obstruct the parkade driving lanes. Fire regulations say you may not store fuel or other dangerous material in your parking stall or storage cage, and they don’t allow anything other than bikes and motor vehicles to be stored outside your storage locker. Any motor vehicle stored in your parking spot must be fully operational. Among other things, that means the licence plate has to be current.

You are responsible for problems caused by anything you store in the parkade.

Visitor Parking

We require all residents to park only in their own parking spots. Our two buildings have a total of 18 visitor parking places, and these must be kept for real visitors: people who are here for a few hours, or maybe a few days at most. Residents can, of course, use them for a short time for loading and unloading. Tradespeople can use them while they are working in our buildings. For a detailed discussion of our parking rules, have a look at our rules regarding visitors’ parking,

If you have more cars than parking spaces, you might be able to rent an unused space from another resident. Try putting a notice on the bulletin boards in the parking garages, post on the Crossbow Landing Facebook page and ask your neighbours.

Canmore has a convenient public transit service that stops right at the end of our driveway. Some of us find that we don’t need as many cars as we thought we would!

Smoking

Provincial law requires that there is no smoking in public places, and within 5 meters of doors, windows and intakes. Smoking is not allowed on our balconies, patios, or in common areas, including parking garages. And please don’t smoke in our forested areas – careless disposal of smoking materials is a leading cause of wildfires in this province.

This applies to both tobacco and other smoking materials, including cannabis.

Our smoking policy is here.

Pets

Smaller dogs – less than 48 cm (18 inches) at the shoulder – are permitted. (There are some larger dogs here, but they have been around since before that rule was in place.)

Please don’t let your dog use the grass as a toilet, and pick up after your pooch. Even in the forested area it’s important to pick up your dog’s leavings, because they are bear attractants. For the same reason, always keep your dog on a leash. They could get into serious trouble if they decide to chase some wildlife (perhaps bringing the wildlife back to visit you). Canmore has off-leash areas, including a spectacular one at Quarry Lake nearby. Use them, and keep your dog on the leash around here.

Cats are permitted, of course, but you need to keep them inside or walk them on a leash (yes, there is a well-trained cat here who will walk on a leash) for their own safety and to protect our birds and wildlife.

Refundables, Recyclables, and Garbage

Every floor has a garbage room with a chute to send your garbage down to the bin in the lowest level. The chute doors are often hard to open, but it’s easier if you remember to turn the handle.

The chutes are quite narrow, so keep your garbage bags small. And please don’t put cardboard down there or leave it lying around on your balconies or patios. Take it to the town’s recycling facilities.

The garbage room on your floor has bins for your refundable bottles and other containers. Our social committee volunteers collect these bottles and cash them in to fund our community social events. Please contribute.

We don’t have other recycling facilities in these buildings. The town has bins for recyclables in many places – the closest to us is on Fitzgerald Rise, but you will probably find the bins between Save On Foods and Canadian Tire on Railway Ave. the most convenient. A great facility is the one at 115 Boulder Crescent, where you can recycle not only paper, plastic, and metal but also batteries, paint, electronics, light bulbs, and other hazardous materials. It’s about a 10-minute drive from here. You can learn more about recycling in Canmore here.

Large items that don’t fit into the garbage chute will be picked up by the town if you phone to make arrangements. Call 403-678-1580 between 8:30 and 4:00 Monday to Friday. You can put the items outside in front of the garbage removal door to the right of the main door to your building. Don’t do it on Wednesdays, when our garbage bins are collected.

If you want to find a new home for things that are still usable (furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing…) take them to Crossway Community Thrift Store.

Renting and Subletting

Zoning for this area permits only single-family dwellings. The town defines a family as “one or more persons who through marriage, blood relationship, adoption, or other circumstance, normally live together on a bona fide domestic basis.” The town does permit a family to rent rooms to a maximum of two other unrelated persons, and so do we. But short-term rentals to tourists or employees are not permitted in our community – our Bylaws (and the Town’s) do not permit rentals shorter than 28 days.

If you rent your unit, notify PEKA of the names of the people who are renting the unit, and provide a copy of the lease.

Bulletin Boards

Each residential building has a community bulletin board in the parkade next the door from the parking garage to the lobby. Feel free to post notices that may be of interest to the residents of Crossbow Landing, including parking space rental availability and items for sale.

The Board and the Property Manager will also post notices of events, newsletters, and other items of interest from time to time. Depending on the subject and at the discretion of the Board and the Property Manager, these notices may also appear in places other than the bulletin board – in the elevators, for instance. These notices will be clearly identified as being from PEKA or the Board.

Notices may be removed by the people who posted them, Board members, or the Property Manager. Do not remove notices that are not yours! And please use the bulletin boards responsibly.

Access Keys, Fobs, and Remote Openers

These are important security devices. Please look after them carefully. PEKA can help you replace or get keys or fobs at a small cost.

If you have replaced your garage door opener, please contact the Property Manager for the codes to be used. The codes are different for each building.

Garage door opener codes may be changed from time to time for security reasons. You will be notified if that happens and told how to change the code on your opener.

Amenities Building

The Amenities Building is available for you to use for your own gatherings. You need to reserve it if you’re going to have more than four guests. Please see Landing Club Use for more details.

Social events

Our Social Committee organizes events from time to time – gatherings, excursions, and other fun stuff. Keep an eye on the web page, watch out for notices in the elevators and our Crossbow Post Facebook page. Everyone is welcome. And be sure to come to our 10 a.m. Thursday morning coffee hour, if you’re around then.

Get involved

The success of Crossbow Landing depends on the participation of its residents. You can help with landscaping, social events, looking after our buildings (simple tasks only), or be part of the Board of Directors. Have a look at what’s available.