What the recorded documents actually say about Shamrock Hills in Granger — 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
READ THE RENTAL LINE FIRST. A 2019 amendment, carried 47 to 1, bars leasing a home for any period at all - owner-occupied only. Beyond that, this is a gated, private-street subdivision built to a standard well above the county norm: minimum house sizes run from 3,300 square feet up to 4,000 depending on which lots you are on, buildings sit back seventy-five feet from the street and fifty feet from every other line, a fifty-foot conservancy easement circles each lot and the owner plants and maintains it, and garages and cars have to be screened from the street and from the neighbours. Some lots are LAKE LOTS with their own easements and a higher bar to amend. Individual water and sewage systems are contemplated and have to meet county health department standards, so confirm what serves the specific address before you write an offer.
No fencing at all is permitted, with one exception: a privacy fence of no more than six feet around the immediate patio or pool area. Even that has to conform to the architectural standard set by the style of the house and be approved by the architectural review committee in writing. There is no perimeter fence, no split rail, no pet-containment fence written into the covenant - any exception is a written variance from the committee. On a corner lot, nothing between two and six feet above the street may block the sight triangle.
More is permitted here than in most of the high-end Granger covenants, but every piece of it goes through the committee. A pool house, cabana, gazebo or arbour, and a detached storage building or pet shelter for lawn tools, toys, pool equipment or pets, are all contemplated - each must be quality construction, kept attractive and neat, and blend with the house, and the plans go to the architectural review committee for written approval before anything is built or placed. The committee can require protective screening around any of it. No trailer, basement, tent, shack, barn or temporary structure may be moved onto or built on a lot without written approval, and none may be lived in.
Campers, trailers, trucks and boats may not be kept in open areas in the subdivision - and the covenant closes the usual workaround by saying that holds whether the open area is on your own lot or off it. Garages here hold two to four cars, so the storage has to happen inside or off site.
Above-ground pools are prohibited outright, in any circumstance. An in-ground pool is allowed but may not be built so as to be readily visible from the street or from any other lot, unless the committee approves it in writing - and if you screen it with landscaping to satisfy that rule, the screening has to work year-round, not just in summer. A pool house or cabana is permitted with committee approval.
The most demanding architectural review in this directory, and it runs in THREE STAGES. An initial concept plan goes in first - survey, drainage plan, and a conceptual sketch with site analysis, site plan, perspective or elevation and approximate house size. Then a preliminary plan: detailed site plan, building plans, elevations, sections and details, and a preliminary landscape AND outdoor lighting plan. Then a final plan: complete construction documents and specifications with the final landscape and lighting plan. Nothing may be built, placed, altered or re-graded until that is approved in writing, no deviation from approved plans is allowed without further written consent, and a government building permit is separately required. Setbacks are large: no building within seventy-five feet of a street line, or fifty feet of any other lot line, with fifty-five and thirty available where lot size or terrain warrants and the committee approves. Every house has to light the portions visible from the public right-of-way, every day from sunset until 11 pm.
More permissive than most covenants of its era. No above-ground television, AM, FM or short-wave radio antenna of any type may go up - but satellite dishes for television reception ARE permitted, provided they are not readily visible from the street or from any other lot in the subdivision. All utility service, cable television included, runs underground and out of sight.
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 →The defining feature of this subdivision, and it takes real land out of use. A CONSERVANCY EASEMENT fifty feet wide - thirty where lot size or terrain warrants and the committee agrees - runs around the entire perimeter of every lot except the part fronting a street. The owner has to maintain plantings across that whole area, at their own expense, so it forms an effective screen, and no building or structure other than utilities and drainage may sit in it. Lots were laid out to avoid grading and keep natural drainage, and any improvement has to be planned to minimise disruption of the natural topography and existing ecosystem, with nothing placed that damages slope ratios, causes erosion or sliding, or changes the direction of a drainage channel, unless the committee approves in writing. If you own a lot with your house on it AND an adjacent unbuilt lot in the subdivision, you have to landscape and maintain the unbuilt one to the same standard - and a lot owned by your spouse counts as yours for that rule.
Every lot has to have a mailbox, and any brick pillars that go with it, built and kept in good condition and repair - and conforming to design criteria the architectural review committee has established and approved in writing. Ask the association for the approved design before you replace one.
Dogs, cats and other household pets are allowed, as long as none is kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose. Livestock and poultry may not be raised, bred or kept. A detached pet shelter is permitted with the committee's written approval.
The single most important rule on this page, and it is absolute. In May 2019 the owners added a new paragraph saying no home may be leased for ANY period of time, and that homes may only be owner occupied. It was not a close vote - a quorum of 88 percent turned out in person or by proxy and the amendment carried 47 to 1. If you are buying here as a rental, or counting on renting the house out later while you relocate, that plan does not work in Shamrock Hills. Nothing in the amendment carves out a hardship exception, so ask the association directly before you rely on one.
Basketball courts, tennis courts and swing sets are treated the same way as pools here: they may not be built so as to be readily visible from the street or from any other lot in the subdivision, unless the committee approves in writing. Landscape screening used to satisfy that has to be effective year-round.
One sign of no more than five square feet advertising the property for sale, plus a builder's signs during the construction and sales period.
This one shapes what the street looks like and it is unusually strict. Every house has a full-size attached garage holding two to four cars. The garage and the parking have to be positioned so that no car and no garage door is readily visible from the street, and so that both are effectively screened from every other lot in the subdivision. No vehicle may ever be parked on the grass or the landscaped part of a lot, and no vehicle may be parked on a right-of-way on a regular, recurring or permanent basis.
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 →Covered by the same 2019 amendment, which allows no lease of any length. A short-term or vacation rental is not possible here.
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 →No lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground or a storage area for rubbish, and no VISIBLE accumulation of rubbish may be left on a lot - a stricter standard than the usual no-dumping line. Trash and garbage go in sanitary containers kept in clean and sanitary condition.
The fires paragraph bans BURNING rather than cooking: no burning of waste, leaves, trees or other debris is permitted anywhere in the subdivision. A grill or a contained recreational fire is not addressed either way, so ask the association before you build a fire pit.
Stated in one line and with no exception: no laundry may be hung outside on any lot in the subdivision.
No flagpole may be erected on any lot unless the placement and the erection are approved in writing by the architectural review committee. The covenant addresses the POLE, not a bracket-mounted flag on the house, which it leaves unaddressed.
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.