Playgrounds, Pergolas, and Pools in Apartment complexes
PeatySkotch-PGO
Posts: 2 ✭✭
Should items within an apartment complex be approved as stops for the game? My wife and I found a new stop today at an apartment complex in our town and as I was driving to the stop I realized I really had no business driving through these parking lots just to get to a pokestop. With the current distances we can hit most from our cars but if the distances go back to the way they were then you will see a brunch of folks who don’t live at the complex walking around just to lay a game. Is that really safe? I understand that these are mini-communities but with the close proximity to the apartments you’re promoting complete strangers to walk in close proximity to someone’s home and parking area. Also, many of these stops that I’m seeing Wayfarer are in area;s that are clearly fenced off which means the general public is locked out anyway. Shouldn’t we just keep the stops to public areas away from residential neighborhoods? I would like to see some clearer guidance on these types of nominations.
Answers
Niantic is not encouraging you or anyone to go to a place that they are not allowed to be. You are told in the game not to trespass.
These places provide community members with safe places to play. If you don't feel comfortable going to them, you can make the choice not to do so.
The guidance tells us that playgrounds and community gathering areas within an apartment complex or gated community can be accepted (pools however are ineligible).
Actually it's valid question. Lots of folks reject something on private residencial property, but they approve on residential complex. It doesn't make any sense. As members of society may object others coming to society to Play.
PS: Pls note i personally have no issues if someone nominated in residential complex.
The guidance is actually pretty specific, it's just that it has not all been put on the wayfarer website itself (which is supposedly being updated soon). Things should be rejected for private property only if it's a *single family* residence.
Wayspots are even allowed on commercial properties that are gated and require employee badges to get in. Niantic has stated that wayspots don't need to be available to everyone or all the time.
So yes, these types of POI are definitely allowed even if only the residents of that complex can use them. As @Gendgi-PGO stated, the game even warns you not to trespass. The guidelines are very clear on this type of nomination, but all the information is scattered around different resources and needs to be consolidated to one place.
If you yourself cannot legally walk in a specific area, then you yourself are not the one to submit the wayspot.
But somebody who can legally walk there is, as per Niantic, absolutely allowed to submit it.
Just to be clear, I wasn't talking about trespassing. Obviously that's is a big no-no and these are in areas you can walk right up to without a problem. I was more concerned with the legitimacy of stops like this due to their location. We have parks with playgrounds in public areas which are perfectly fine since their location is meant for total public access. Sites like this are set up for the residence use by the complex and not intended for general public use. The point I was trying to make was if these should be approved or not since I see a lot of them in Wayfarer. Is the community comfortable with us approving these since they (in my opinion) could have access concerns. Yes, there could be a lot of pogo players in the complex that could benefit from the sights but what about the non-pogo residence who see an increase in non-resident foot traffic? It's not the players I'm concerned about, it's the non-players who don't understand why all these people are randomly showing up.
You may have a point, but so far Niantic is totally ok with it. If the owner of the whole complex gets complaints, they can contact Niantic to have them removed.
What is this single property residence?
So basically appartments are allowed because many families live there one about other ?
In that case what about private residential properties where more than single families live or where are are many houses close to each other with distance of just like 1 to 5 metres? (Without any walls & fence around private property & having free access to all & poi on private property itself connected to foothpath ?)
An individual's apartment IS a "single family residence", and nothing in it would be allowed.
But an apartment building, or townhouse complex, or condo village? They have "communal areas" (courtyards, lobbies, etc) in which things "can" be submitted. Gazebos, playgrounds, fountains, artworks, sportsball, etc.
From the August 2019 AMA:
Q70: Here there are a lot of apartment complexes with private playgrounds, which is kind of a grey area. On the one hand, they are not single residences, but on the other hand they are private residences, often with lots of signs warning off trespassers. Can we, in the interest of not encouraging rude behaviour by Agents (and by extension, those who play Those Other Games) declare such private playgrounds as off limits, much like schools are?
A70: As you describe it, these are completely eligible candidates. A person’s personal behaviour is not an indication of whether something is eligible to be a Portal.
And from the July 2017 AMA:
Q24: There are portals available in hard to access locations (having portals in corporate spaces which require gatepass to access is not against the TOS).. Such portals are a great advantage for the faction players who are lucky enough to work there.. The problem is the other faction start complaining and escalating to Nia ops etc seeking for portal removal.. What is your take on this..
A24: My understanding is portals on commercial property are allowed, this includes apartment complexes. Portals on private residential property are not allowed. The issue is one of access. If the player controls the access and can categorically deny everyone, that's not fair. If a hundred people have access but only one is an Ingress player... well... that's an entirely different situation.
My understanding is Apartment/condos ARE NOT single family private residential dwellings...so the 40yrd rule DOES NOT come into play. Someone living in an APARTMENT/CONDO may own their unit but they do not own the land...hence it IS NOT private residential property. I had problems w/this early on and got much help on these threads.