What the recorded documents actually say about Clover Trails in Goshen — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
20 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
STEP 0. The input carries no '[... not shown here ...]' marker and its text is the whole OCR cache for the three documents it names, so nothing was windowed away. The problem was upstream of the window. The input's own primary document is the 2002 Declaration for THE VILLAS OF CLOVER TRAILS - a separate 12.20-acre RT, LLC plat with its own association and its own private roads, adjoining Clover Trails Section 5, and the companion of The Villas of Park Meadows at Clover Trails, which is a different neighborhood in this directory with its own slug. It is not Clover Trails and none of the 22 answers here come from it. Meanwhile the one complete, legible declaration for Clover Trails itself - data/covenants/clover-trails/202431682/C&Rs..pdf, 17 pages, Section 10 - has never been seen by any reader: covenant_texts_index.json classes it 'other', so hoa_render_scans.covenants_for() skipped it and it was never rendered or OCR'd. The cause is the filename regex in pipeline/extract_text.py, which matches 'C&R' and 'CC&Rs' but not 'C&Rs'. 43 documents corpus-wide are classed 'other' with a covenant-shaped filename, all of them scans with no text layer to rescue them. This re-read rendered that PDF at 200 dpi, OCR'd it with the same tesseract settings the pipeline uses, and saved the text to data/_misclassified_ocr/clover-trails__202431682__C-and-Rs__section-10.txt. 15 of the 22 answers below are quoted from it.
Fencing is limited and the architectural control committee is the gate. A perimeter fence may not go over four feet unless the committee approves a taller one in writing. In front of the house nothing but a decorative accent fence is allowed. To the sides and rear, temporary and wire fences are out, though chain link is specifically not prohibited. Privacy fencing is only for screening a patio, deck or pool area - the declaration says it may not be run around the perimeter of a lot at all. The Section 6 declaration carries the same four-foot and front-yard limits.
One storage building is allowed per lot and the committee approves it, including where it sits. The size cap is 10 feet by 12 feet and the exterior has to match the house. Anything beyond that is out: the declaration separately bars a temporary structure, cellar, shack, garage, barn, tool shed, storage shed or other outbuilding of any type, except during construction and temporary maintenance of the home.
A recreational vehicle, boat, trailer or motor home may not be kept outside on a lot. The declaration names them alongside tractor-semitrailers, trucks and automobiles and bars placing any of them for storage or repair on the exterior of a lot, which leaves the garage as the only place one can sit. The documents set no grace period for a weekend visit, so a loading-and-unloading allowance is a question for the association.
An in-ground pool is possible with the architectural control committee's prior written approval, on the same footing as a tennis court. An above-ground pool is prohibited outright, with no approval route. Worth knowing before you count on it: the Section 6 declaration in hand has no pool paragraph at all, so which section a lot sits in can change the answer - confirm with the association.
Plans go in before anything is built, added to or altered, and that includes changing a lot's natural topography or drainage. One complete set of plans has to show the floor plan, quality of construction, materials, outside colors, how the design sits with surrounding houses, the location relative to lot lines, and topography and finish grade elevations. Approval or refusal comes in writing and no deviation from approved plans is allowed without further written consent. One timing point to raise with the association: the declaration puts an end date on the committee itself - December 31, 2015, unless houses had not yet been built on every lot - so ask who reviews plans today.
Outside antennas are prohibited as a class - television, AM, FM, short wave and any earth receiving station. The one carve-out is a single satellite dish no larger than twenty inches in circumference, mounted on the back half of the roof in a spot that is inconspicuous from the street in front of the house. Federal rules on antenna installation have moved since 2004, so this is one to raise with the association rather than read as the last word.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Yards have to be planted. Side, front and rear yards go in with grass seed, sod or ground cover within one hundred eighty days of the house being finished, or as soon as the season allows, or by the time it is lived in - whichever comes first - unless the committee approves something else. Separately, a lot's natural topography and drainage cannot be altered without approved plans, and no grading change may alter the flow of overland storm drainage through a drainage swale.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Ordinary household pets - dogs, cats and the like - are fine, but not if they are bred or kept commercially, and livestock, poultry and pigeons are out. Two limits matter day to day: dogs and cats may not be housed or regularly kept outside the house, and they may not be left outside overnight. Off the owner's property or out of an attendant's sight, a dog or cat is to be tethered or leashed and kept on the owner's own lot. The Section 6 declaration carries the same paragraph.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →One sign, and it has to be small. A for-sale sign may not exceed five square feet. The only sign of any size permitted is a builder's during construction and the sales period, plus whatever signage the developer put up to market the subdivision. Nothing else is allowed in public view, and the home-occupation paragraph separately bars any sign that would show from outside that a business is being run in the house.
The driveway spec is fixed: concrete, at least twelve feet wide, matched to the width of the garage doors, with stone and cinder ruled out and any other material needing written approval. Every house has to have a full-size attached garage holding at least two cars, with no more than three single-car entry spaces, and up to four cars of interior space if the committee approves in writing. Automobiles are named in the paragraph that bars placing a vehicle for storage or repair on the exterior of a lot. Everyday on-street parking is not addressed in these documents.
A home occupation is permitted inside a narrow box. It has to run entirely inside the house and be carried on solely by a family member living there, stay clearly secondary to using the house as a home, show nothing from the outside, sell no goods on the lot, employ nobody outside the immediate family living there, use no mechanical or electrical equipment beyond office equipment, and require no off-street parking under local codes. The declaration then names what can never qualify: a vehicle or implement repair shop, barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, massage parlor, animal hospital, or animal care, trimming or grooming of any form.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Repair work outdoors is out. The declaration bars placing an automobile, truck, recreational vehicle, boat, trailer, motor home or tractor-semitrailer for storage or repair on the exterior of a lot, which takes in an ordinary car in your own driveway. The home-occupation paragraph separately says a vehicle or implement repair shop can never qualify as a home occupation.
Trash, garbage and other waste are kept only in appropriate residential trash and garbage containers, and the containers and any disposal equipment are kept clean and sanitary. A lot may not be used as a dumping ground for rubbish, trash or junk. The declaration sets no screening rule and no hours for putting cans at the curb, so that is a question for the association.
Stricter than a street-only burn ban. The declaration prohibits fire on a lot as well as on any street, sidewalk or roadway, and it does not stop at vegetation and trash - the clause reaches other material as well, not only vegetation and trash. Grills and barbecues are not named anywhere in the documents, so a charcoal grill or a back-yard fire pit is worth raising with the association before you rely on it.
No permanent structure for hanging laundry, rugs or anything else may stand outside the house. That is written as a structure rule rather than a ban on drying clothes, so a retractable or portable line is not addressed either way - ask the association. The Section 6 declaration carries the same sentence.
We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →We don’t have this one confirmed yet — we can ask the association and get you an answer before you commit to anything.
We can find out →Tell us the question and we will get you the answer from the recorded documents.