What the recorded documents actually say about Pheasant Ridge Sixth in Bristol — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
7 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
These answers come from one recorded document: the Amended and Restated Protective Restrictions, Covenants, Limitations and Easements for Pheasant Ridge and The Forest, recorded with the Elkhart County Recorder on October 6, 2005 and stamped 2005 32011. The word Sixth in this neighborhood's name describes a plat, not a separate rulebook. Pheasant Ridge Sixth has no declaration of its own. This single 2005 instrument lists about eighteen plats on its first two pages and governs all of them together under one association, and Pheasant Ridge Sixth is named among them, identified as the plat recorded in Plat Book 19, page 66 of the Elkhart County Records. So these are this plat's own rules, and they are the same rules the rest of Pheasant Ridge, The Forest and Baywater live under.
Two things follow from sharing one document. A few clauses vary by where a lot sits rather than by plat: lots next to a lake carry different minimum house sizes and a 55-foot setback from the lake edge, and lots in The Forest carry higher minimum house sizes. And the list of plats in this instrument begins at Pheasant Ridge Third, so the earliest Pheasant Ridge plat is not among the names it recites. That does not affect Pheasant Ridge Sixth, which is recited, but it is a reason not to assume this one document answers for every address with Pheasant Ridge in it.
One boundary change is recorded here. Lot 131 of Pheasant Ridge Sixth was replatted into Baywater at Pheasant Ridge, so that ground now sits in a different plat under the same covenants. The document never lists the lot numbers inside Pheasant Ridge Sixth, so the recorded plat itself is the place to confirm whether a particular address is in it.
This 2005 document replaced the earlier Pheasant Ridge covenants from 1990 and the amendments that followed them, and it merged in the separate 1989 covenants for The Forest. Older copies of those superseded papers are still circulating in sale files for this neighborhood, so check the date on any copy you are handed before relying on it. Nothing recorded after 2005 turned up in the documents available here, which is not the same as there being nothing.
The copy on file is a scan of paper. Its digital text was produced by older character recognition and drops whole passages, including the section on chimneys, so the clauses above were read against the scanned page images as well. For anything you will act on, order the recorded instrument from the Elkhart County Recorder or ask your title company for it, and ask the Pheasant Ridge Homeowner's Association in writing for its current rules and its current assessment.
Fences of every kind are barred on a lot unless the Architectural Control Committee approves them in advance and in writing. The clause is written broadly: it names chain link, split rail, perimeter fencing of any type, and hedges and other growing fences, so a planted hedge used as a fence is treated the same as a built one. Two other sections shape placement. Screen planting over 72 inches high is not permitted between the building setback line and the front lot line, nor within 30 feet of the rear lot line on lots that back the river or creek. On a corner lot, no fence, wall, hedge or shrub may block sight lines between 2 and 6 feet above the roadway inside the triangle formed by the street lines and a line joining them 25 feet from the intersection, and the same limit applies within 10 feet of where a driveway meets a street line. The document sets no fence height or material standard of its own, so the committee decides that case by case, and it states that the committee's decisions are entirely within its discretion. Ask the association for its current submittal process before ordering any fence.
A detached storage building is allowed only with Architectural Control Committee approval obtained before construction begins. The same section covers a detached pet shelter, a play house, play structures and anything built to store lawn tools, toys or pool equipment. The standards it sets are that the structure be of quality construction, be kept neat and attractive, and blend with the established home. The committee may also require protective screening around it. One hard line: no such structure is permitted within 30 feet of the rear lot line on a lot that abuts the river. A well house or pump house needs its own written approval.
The covenant bars campers, trailers, trucks, boats and snowmobiles from being kept in open areas, and it reaches open areas both on and off a lot. It never defines what an open area is, and it never mentions a garage in connection with a recreational vehicle, so where one may sit on a lot that has an enclosed garage is genuinely left open by the document. The rest of the same section deals with motor vehicles rather than recreational ones: no motor vehicle may be parked, kept or stored on a street or lawn area, street parking is barred between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and any vehicle parked overnight is to be entirely within a garage or driveway. If you own a camper or a boat, this is worth settling in writing with the association before you buy, because the answer turns on how it reads the words open areas.
Above ground pools are prohibited outright. An in-ground pool is permitted only after the Architectural Control Committee approves the plans and specifications in writing, and any lighting fixtures and fencing that go with it need that same prior approval. The document sets no setback, depth or barrier standard of its own for a pool, so those come down to the committee and to county code.
Written approval from the Architectural Control Committee comes before any building or structure is erected, placed, altered or even maintained, and before the natural topography or drainage of a lot is changed. Plans must show the floor plan, quality of construction materials, outside colors, how the external design sits with existing homes, and location against lot lines, topography and finish grade. Two complete sets go in and one comes back. An approval or a denial is to be in writing, with reasons given for a denial. Paving of any kind, including for parking or recreation, needs approval. Once plans are approved, changes to them need the committee's prior written consent. The committee is three people appointed by the association board, and the document states that its decisions are entirely within its discretion. Two specifics worth knowing: every chimney is to be masonry construction or exterior masonry veneer, and each lot carries a dusk-to-dawn post light of a type the committee approves.
A satellite dish or digital television dish is capped at 18 inches in diameter and, where possible, is to be positioned so it is not visible from the street. Outside above-ground antennas are a separate and stricter matter: television, AM, FM and short wave radio antennas of any type are barred from lots and structures. Utility service is to run underground and out of sight. Federal rules on over-the-air reception devices can limit how an association enforces a restriction like this one, so if a dish larger than 18 inches matters to you, raise it with the association and your installer before closing.
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 →This neighborhood carries an unusual requirement: every lot is to have an underground irrigation system able to water all cultivated areas, kept in working order and run often enough to keep things growing. Lots are also to be kept in good and orderly fashion with landscaping in keeping with the pattern established in the subdivision, and may not be overgrown or weed infested. After a home is finished or occupied, whichever comes first, the side, front and rear yards are to be planted with grass, sod or ground cover within 120 days unless the Architectural Control Committee approves something else, and on a wooded lot the ground between the tree line and the curb is planted too. On an undeveloped or vacant lot the association may, after 10 days notice to fix it, do the work itself and bill the owner. Budgeting for irrigation is worth considering if a home does not already have it.
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 →Dogs, cats and other household pets may be kept. The conditions are that they are not kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose, and that they are not allowed to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard in any manner. Animals, livestock and poultry of every other kind are barred from being raised, bred or kept on a lot. There is no breed restriction here, no stated limit on how many pets, and no leash rule in the document. A detached pet shelter is treated as a detached building and needs Architectural Control Committee approval before it is built.
Renting out a home here is gated twice. The association has to approve the lease before it is entered into, and once approved the lease may not run longer than one year. The document does not set out what the association weighs in deciding, what a renewal looks like, or how long a decision takes. If buying this home depends on being able to rent it, get the association's written position on both points before you close.
A permanent or paved basketball court is named directly and needs written Architectural Control Committee approval of the plans before it is built, along with any lighting or fencing around it. A separate line says approval must be obtained for pavement of any kind, including for recreational use, which can reach a pad poured for a hoop. The document does not mention a portable or pole-mounted hoop on an existing driveway, so that one is unaddressed on its face and is worth asking the committee about rather than assuming either way.
One sign of no more than 5 square feet advertising the property for sale or for rent is the only owner sign the document allows in public view. A builder may use a sign of any size to advertise the property for sale or rent and during the construction and sales period. Everything else displayed to public view on a lot sits outside what this section permits, which on its face would include political, contractor and security signs. Indiana law and the association's own current rules can affect how a restriction like this is applied, so ask the association before putting anything else out.
No motor vehicle of any kind may be parked, kept, stored or maintained on a street or on a lawn area, and nothing may be parked on a street between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Anything parked overnight is to be entirely within a garage or a driveway. Driveways themselves are regulated: no stone or cinder, at least 12 feet wide, asphalt or concrete at least 4 inches thick, and a circular drive in front of a home at least 8 feet wide. Separately, campers, trailers, trucks, boats and snowmobiles may not be kept in open areas on or off the lot, which is covered under recreational vehicles. Overnight guest parking is the practical pinch point here, so ask the association how it handles that.
The section is headed Home Occupations and it is one sentence: a lot may not be used for any purpose other than as a single-family residence. It stops there. It carves out no exception, defines no permitted home occupation, and sets no test about signs, employees, customer traffic or deliveries. Some recorded covenants in this area do carry a defined home-occupation exception in exactly this spot; this one does not. How far the sentence reaches for a resident who works from home with no outside activity is not something the document answers, so a home-based business plan is worth clearing with the association in writing first.
The document never uses the words short term, vacation or nightly rental. What it does say is that no lease of a dwelling unit may be entered into without the association's prior approval, and that an approved lease may not run longer than one year. A short stay let for money is a lease of the dwelling, so on the face of this wording it would need that same prior approval. The one-year cap is a ceiling rather than a floor, so it does not by itself rule a short stay out. Treat this as unsettled on the page and get the association's written position before counting on short-term rental income.
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 pickup happens on one day of each week, and the association board sets which day. Trash, garbage and other waste may only be kept in sanitary containers, and the equipment used to store or dispose of it is to be kept clean and sanitary. No lot may be used as a dumping ground for rubbish, grass clippings, leaves, tree limbs or compost, which on its face would reach a backyard compost pile. Burning waste is separately prohibited. During construction, debris is to be contained so it does not litter neighboring property, and the association may clean up loose debris and bill the lot owner. The document does not say where containers are to be stored between pickups.
No grill of any kind is named anywhere in this document. What the covenant prohibits is open burning on a lot, whether in incinerators, containers or otherwise, and the section it sits in is about garbage and refuse disposal. The list of what may not be burned is waste material: trash, refuse, building materials, leaves, tree limbs, grass clippings, debris, and then a catch-all phrase covering any other material of any kind. A contained cooking fire is not open burning of refuse on the face of that wording, but the catch-all is broad enough that a reasonable person could read it further than that. So the covenant does not address grilling directly, and if a charcoal grill or a fire pit matters to you, the association is the place to settle it. A gas grill raises a different question again, since nothing is consumed in the sense this section describes.
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.