What the recorded documents actually say about Jefferson Ridge in Goshen — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
15 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
WHAT THIS PAGE RESTS ON. Two recorded instruments, both complete on file and both read end to end. The main one is the Jefferson Ridge Second Section Protective Restrictions, Covenants, Limitations and Easements, Elkhart County instrument 99-26473, adopted in 1999 for lots 75 through 146. The other is the 1997 Jefferson Ridge instrument, 97-032385, for lots 1 through 28. They were compared paragraph by paragraph: both run to thirty-four numbered paragraphs and say materially the same things, so the answers below hold for either section. Where they differ it is noted in the answer.
WHICH LOTS. Between them these two instruments cover lots 1 through 28 and lots 75 through 146. Lots 29 through 74 fall between the two, and no instrument covering that range is in the copy on file. If the home you are looking at is in that range, treat this page as a guide to the pattern in the neighborhood rather than as the rule for your lot, and get the covenants for your own section.
WHAT THESE DOCUMENTS DO NOT SETTLE. The association is empowered to adopt by-laws and to collect dues, and its by-laws are not on file. The dues ceiling in the covenants is two hundred dollars a year and dates from the 1990s, and the covenants allow a majority of all lots to approve more, so the current figure is a question for the association. Anything recorded after 1999 would not appear here. The recorded copies on file are scans of paper rather than digital text, so individual words can be misread in conversion, which is why each answer carries the document's own wording.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU RELY ON IT. Have your title company or the Elkhart County Recorder pull the covenants for the specific section your lot sits in, plus any later amendment, and ask the association for its by-laws and current dues.
Fencing is narrow here and the material is prescribed. The only fencing enclosure permitted is a wood rail with coated green or brown chain link, which the covenants call invisible mesh, not more than four feet high. It has to match the architectural standards set by the style of house on the lot and be approved in writing by the architectural control committee, unless the committee has approved a written variance. So a solid privacy fence or a taller fence is not what this paragraph contemplates. Separately, no screen planting over seventy-two inches is allowed between the building setback line and the front lot line, and at corners and driveways no fence, wall, hedge or shrub may block sight lines between two and six feet above the road within twenty-five feet of the intersecting street lines.
A shed is allowed, with a size cap and approval first. The covenants cover any detached pet shelter, play house, or structure designed to store lawn tools, toys, pool equipment or other personal property: it has to be of quality construction, kept in an attractive and neat condition, blend with the house already built, and go to the architectural control committee for approval before construction starts. The maximum size for a detached building, including storage buildings and pool houses, is ten feet by twelve feet, unless the committee or the developer gives a written exception. The committee may also require protective screening around it. A well house or pump house needs separate written approval. A different paragraph bars any shack, barn or other outbuilding from being used as a residence.
Recreational and commercial vehicles may not be kept in open areas, and the covenants name campers, trailers, trucks, boats and snowmobiles. The clause reaches open areas off the lot as well as on it, which is broader than most vehicle rules and is worth knowing before you buy. The document never defines what an open area is, and it does not mention a garage in either direction, so a camper, boat or trailer kept inside a closed garage is not addressed by the wording at all. The text alone does not settle that. Two nearby paragraphs bear on the same thing: no lot may be used to store old lumber, boats, cars, materials or debris that would make the lot unsightly, and no motor vehicle of any kind may be parked, kept or stored on any street or lawn area. The association, or your title company, is the place to ask how the open areas rule tends to be applied before you rely on it.
The answer depends on the type of pool. An above ground pool is not permitted at all. An in-ground pool is allowed but may not be erected, built or installed until the plans and specifications have been approved in writing by the architectural control committee, and any lighting fixtures for it need the same prior approval. The same paragraph handles permanent or paved athletic facilities the same way. A pool house counts as a detached building and is capped at ten feet by twelve feet unless the committee gives a written exception.
Approval comes first and the submission is detailed. No building or other structure may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a lot, and the natural grade or drainage may not be altered, until the plans have been approved by the architectural control committee. The plans must show floor plan, quality of construction materials, outside colors, how the external design sits with existing houses, location against lot lines, topography and finish grade, and the placement of all pavement, the well and the septic system relative to neighboring homes to satisfy the county health department. One complete set goes in and is kept by the developer rather than returned. Approval for pavement of any kind is required, including parking and recreational paving. Refusals come in writing with the reasons stated. Removing a tree is a separate approval: the committee has the exclusive right to approve tree removal for any purpose, and trees to be cut must be marked with orange spray paint forty-eight hours beforehand with written notice to the developer.
Dishes are limited by size and other antennas are barred. No outside above ground television, AM, FM or short wave radio antenna of any type may be erected or kept on a lot or structure. A satellite dish is prohibited unless it is less than two feet across. All utility service, including cable television, has to run underground and out of sight. So a small dish under two feet is the route the document leaves open. Federal rules on antenna installation can also bear on how a clause like this is enforced, which is a question for a lawyer rather than for this page.
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 →Landscaping is required rather than merely allowed, and it is regulated in several places. Every lot has to be maintained in good and orderly fashion with appropriate landscaping in keeping with the pattern established in the subdivision, and no lot may be overgrown or weed infested. The side, front and rear yards have to be planted with grass, sod or ground cover within one hundred twenty days of the house being finished or occupied, whichever comes first, unless the committee approves otherwise, and on a wooded lot everything between the tree line and the curb has to be planted as well. Two adjoining lots in one ownership count as a single lot for this. Screen planting over seventy-two inches is not allowed between the building setback line and the front lot line. Removing any tree, for building, for a driveway, for landscaping or for any other reason, needs the architectural control committee's approval first. An overgrown lot can be cut by the association at the owner's cost after ten days notice.
Mailboxes are standardised, which is unusual for covenants of this vintage and worth knowing. A uniform mailbox goes in front of each home, placed for easy access for mail and newspaper delivery and landscaped to look presentable. The box has to be of similar design and materials to the house, or as the developer determines, and has to have a newspaper receptacle directly beneath it. Brass numbers three inches tall go on both sides of the box or post so they can be read from traffic in either direction.
Household pets are allowed, with two limits. No animals, livestock or poultry of any kind may be raised, bred or kept on a lot, except that dogs, cats or other household pets may be kept, provided they are not kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose and are not allowed to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard in any way. The covenants then add a specific bar: no vicious or attack trained dog may be kept on any lot. No number limit and no leash rule are written down, and the association may have its own pet rules that are not part of the recorded covenants.
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 →A permanent or paved basketball court is named directly and needs approval. The covenants say permanent or paved recreational athletic facilities, and they name tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, may not be erected, built or installed on any lot until the plans and specifications have been approved in writing by the architectural control committee, and any lighting for them needs the same prior approval. What the document does not address is a portable hoop on wheels or one mounted on the garage, since neither is a permanent or paved facility on the face of that wording. Approval for pavement of any kind, including for recreational use, is separately required under the architectural control paragraph.
One sign is allowed and the size is capped. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot except a single sign of not more than five square feet advertising the home for sale or rent, or a sign of any size used by a builder during construction and the sales period. The developer kept the right to put up signs to promote and sell lots, and no sign may be used to promote the sale of an undeveloped lot except by the developer or with the developer's written consent.
Street and lawn parking are both restricted, and there is an overnight window. No motor vehicle of any kind or description may be parked, kept, stored or otherwise maintained on any street or lawn area, and no vehicle may be parked on any street between two and six in the morning. Recreational and commercial vehicles have their own rule and may not be kept in open areas on or off the lot. A lot may not be used to store old cars or boats in a way that makes it unsightly. Nothing in the covenants caps how many cars may sit on a driveway or requires them to be in the garage, and every house must have a full size attached garage holding at least two and no more than three cars without the committee's written consent.
The covenants have a paragraph headed Home Occupations, and it does not create one. It says a lot may not be used for any purpose other than a single-family residence, full stop, with none of the carve-outs that neighbouring subdivisions write in for a quiet business run from the house. The companion paragraph says no dwelling may be placed or remain on a lot other than one single-family dwelling, with exceptions only by unanimous written approval of the architectural control committee. What the document does not do is define what counts as a purpose other than a residence, so whether remote work with no clients, no employees and no signage is what this paragraph is aimed at is not something the text settles. If a home business matters to you, raise it with the association before you buy.
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 →Trash has to be contained and the collection day is set. No lot may be used or kept as a dumping ground for rubbish, grass clippings, leaves, tree limbs or compost, and trash, garbage and other waste may only be kept in sanitary containers, with the equipment for storing or disposing of it kept clean and sanitary. Grass clippings, leaves and other waste may not be put on anyone else's property in the subdivision, though yard waste may be composted on your own lot if it is contained in something that blends with the house, does not hurt the look of the subdivision and does not become a nuisance. Trash collection is to be completed on Monday of each week, and the association may change that by majority vote. During construction all debris has to be contained, and if it becomes a general nuisance the association may clean it up at the lot owner's cost.
These covenants are unusual in answering this directly. They ban open burning on any lot, whether in an incinerator, a container or otherwise, and then say in the same sentence that the ban is not to be read as prohibiting a backyard barbecue. So a grill is expressly carved out of the burning restriction rather than left to inference. The burning ban itself is broad: trash, waste, refuse, building materials, leaves, tree limbs, grass clippings, debris and any other material. A recreational fire pit is a different question, since it is neither a barbecue nor obviously outside a ban on burning otherwise, and the document does not name one. A general nuisance clause also applies to anything done on a lot that becomes an annoyance in the neighborhood.
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 →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.