What the recorded documents actually say about Rosetta Place in Mishawaka — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
6 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 instrument that governs all of Rosetta Place: the Protective Restrictions, Covenants, Limitations and Easements for Rosetta Place, recorded in St. Joseph County on July 1, 2005 as instrument 0528992, indexed by the county as 2005.28992. It states on its first page that the subdivision consists of 72 lots, and the recorded plat, instrument 0519127 recorded May 4, 2005, lays out lots 1 through 72 on two sheets. Rosetta Place is a single plat, not a set of separately governed sections. The plat does show areas labelled Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3, and its own legend states that the phases shown are for construction purposes only, so there is no separate phase declaration to look for and no part of the subdivision left without recorded covenants. Two scans of this same 2005 instrument are on file and they agree. The declaration does carry some wording about Additions and Sections of Rosetta Place, which reads as standard form language, since only the one plat was recorded. Two cautions. Southampton, Southampton East and Reverewood adjoin Rosetta Place and are separate subdivisions with their own covenants, so nothing here applies to a home in those. And the copy on file is a scan of paper read by character recognition, with every figure that carries a rule in these answers checked by eye against the page image. Nothing recorded after 2005 appears in the documents on file here, so for a purchase decision ask the association for its current rules and have the title company run the chain for any later amendment.
Perimeter fencing is permitted, with the recorded document setting a height limit of 4 feet and limiting it to natural materials or vinyl. Privacy fencing is allowed around an immediate patio or pool at not more than six feet; it has to match the architectural standards set by the style of the home and be approved in writing by the Rosetta Place Architectural Control Committee, unless that committee approves a written variance. A separate paragraph on sight distance at intersections bars any fence, wall, hedge or shrub that blocks sight lines between two and six feet above the roadway on a corner lot, inside the triangle formed by the street lines and a line joining them 25 feet from the intersection. The 4-foot figure was confirmed by reading the page image directly, because the scanned copy renders the foot mark after the 4 as a stray symbol that is easy to misread.
Detached storage buildings and pet shelters are addressed directly and are permitted with approval. The document requires that a detached structure for lawn tools, toys, swimming pool apparatus, other personal property or the shelter of pets be of quality construction, kept attractive and neat, blend with the established home, and be submitted to the Rosetta Place Architectural Control Committee for approval before construction begins. That committee may also require protective screening around the structure. A separate paragraph bars a barn, outbuilding, shack or tent from being used as a residence.
The document says recreational and commercial vehicles, naming campers, trailers, trucks and boats, may not be kept in open areas in the subdivision, whether those open areas are on or off the owner lot. It does not define what counts as an open area, and it never mentions a garage either way, so a camper or boat kept fully inside a closed garage is a question this document does not settle. What is clear is that keeping one out in the open is not permitted. An owner planning to keep a recreational vehicle at the home may want to put the specific plan to the association in writing before buying.
Pools are addressed directly and the document splits them. Above ground pools are not permitted. Inground pools, and tennis courts, are permitted with prior approval from the Rosetta Place Architectural Control Committee. The fencing paragraph separately allows privacy fencing up to six feet around an immediate patio or pool, subject to the same committee approval.
Approval is required before work starts. No building or other structure may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a lot, and the natural topography or drainage may not be altered, until the plans have been approved by the Rosetta Place Architectural Control Committee. The plans have to show the floor plan, quality of construction, materials, outside colors, how the external design sits with existing homes, and the location against lot lines, topography and finish grade. Two complete sets go in, one is kept and one returned, and the approval or disapproval comes in writing. Nothing that does not fully match the approved plans may be built, and changes need the committee written consent first. One point worth checking with the association: the document gives the committee authority for twenty years after the plat is recorded, and the plat was recorded in 2005, so who holds approval authority today may have shifted to the homeowners association.
The recorded document prohibits these. It bars any outside above-ground television, AM, FM or short wave radio antenna of any type, and says that includes any type of satellite dish antenna, on any lot or structure in the subdivision. The same paragraph requires all utility service, including cable television, to run underground and stay out of sight. The document sets no size exception and names no approval route. It dates from 2005 and federal rules on antennas have their own reach, so an owner who needs a dish may want to ask the association, and a real estate attorney, how this paragraph is applied today.
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 →Several paragraphs bear on landscaping. Trees are the strictest: no live tree over four inches in diameter measured 12 inches above the ground, no flowering tree such as a dogwood or redbud, no broad leaf evergreen, and no live vegetation on a slope steeper than twenty percent may be cut without prior approval from the Rosetta Place Architectural Control Committee. A separate paragraph adds that no live tree of any size within ten feet of a lot perimeter may be cut without that approval. Screen planting over thirty-six inches high is not permitted between the building setback line and the front lot line. Yards have to be planted with grass seed, sod or ground cover within 120 days of the home being finished or occupied, whichever comes first. Plantings in the marked protective screening areas are maintained by the lot owner at their own expense.
The document requires a mailbox on each lot at all times, kept in good condition and repair, matching design criteria set by the Architectural Control Committee. It does not print the design itself, so the current criteria are worth asking the association for.
Ordinary household pets are permitted. The document allows dogs, cats and other household pets on two conditions: they are not kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose, and they are not permitted to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard in any manner. Raising, breeding or keeping animals, livestock or poultry generally is not permitted. The paragraph sets no limit on the number of pets and names no restricted breed. A separate paragraph requires committee approval before a pet shelter structure is built.
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 →Signs are tightly controlled and run through an approval. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot, and the document names for sale and for rent signs specifically, along with builder signs during construction and sales, unless prior written approval is given by the developer. The developer reserved the right to put up its own signs to promote lot and home sales. Note that the approver named is the developer, not the committee or the association, and the subdivision dates from 2005, so an owner planning to list a home may want to confirm with the association who grants that approval now.
Parking is addressed in detail. Every home has to have a full-size attached garage holding at least two cars and no more than three. Garages and parking have to sit so that cars and garage doors are not readily visible from the street and are effectively screened from other lots, with an exception noted for the non-side-load garages the committee may approve. No vehicle may be parked on the grass or any landscaped part of a lot at any time, and no vehicle may be parked on a regular, recurrent or permanent basis on any right-of-way. Campers, trailers, trucks and boats have their own paragraph, summarized under recreational vehicles.
A home occupation is permitted within limits. It has to be conducted entirely inside the home and carried on solely by a member of the immediate family living there, and it has to stay clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the home as a home. Four conditions come with it: nothing on the exterior may show the building is used for anything other than a dwelling, no commodity may be sold on the premises, no one may be employed other than an immediate family member living there, and no mechanical or electrical equipment may be used. The document then names uses that are excluded outright, among them a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, animal hospital and animal care such as dog trimming. The no-equipment condition is broad on its face, so an owner with a specific plan may want it confirmed in writing.
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 handling is addressed. No lot may be used or kept as a dumping ground for rubbish, and trash, garbage and other waste may not be kept except in sanitary containers. Any incinerator or other equipment for storing or disposing of that material has to be kept in clean, sanitary condition. The document does not say where containers sit between collections or set a screening rule for them. A separate paragraph gives the association power to enforce the restrictions on accumulations of rubbish, weeds and trash.
The recorded document never names a grill, a barbecue or cooking equipment of any kind. Its only paragraph on fire says that no fire may burn on any street or roadway in the subdivision. On the face of that wording the restriction is aimed at streets and roadways rather than at a lot, so a contained cooking grill on a patio or deck is not what it describes. It is worth knowing the paragraph is short and leaves open fires on a lot unmentioned, and local burn ordinances apply separately. The association can confirm how it reads this today.
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.