What the recorded documents actually say about Summer Hill in Granger — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
4 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 the Second Amended and Restated Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions of Summer Hill, signed November 20, 2020 by the Summer Hill Homeowners Association board and recorded the same day with the St. Joseph County Recorder as instrument 2020-36463, twenty-two pages. It carries the recorder's stamp, the officers' signatures and a notarized certificate of proof, so it is the governing recorded document, and it restates the covenants in their entirety, which means the original June 2000 declaration no longer needs to be read alongside it.
It covers the whole of Summer Hill: fifty-one homesites, numbered 1 through 7, 8A, 9A and 10A, and 11 through 51. Lot A was part of the original plat but is not part of the association, and the document says every reference to it has been removed. If the homesite you are looking at carries a number in that range, these answers govern it.
Summer Hill is a maintained community rather than an ordinary subdivision, and that changes what several of these answers mean. The association mows, fertilizes and landscapes every homesite, and clears snow. In exchange, a great deal of what a buyer thinks of as their own yard is decided by an approved landscaping plan and by the Architectural Control Committee rather than by the owner. Several answers below say ask first for that reason, not because anyone singled the item out.
Two documents sit alongside the recorded declaration, and neither one overrides it. The association's code of by-laws is on file, but it governs meetings, elections, officers and money, not what you may do with your home, and the declaration states that where the two conflict the declaration wins. The association also publishes a list of homeowner and association responsibilities dated March 2023, covering mowing, fertilizing, leaf removal, sprinkler winterizing, mulch colour, pond maintenance and gutter cleaning. That list is useful and current, but it is a board document rather than a recorded covenant, and a board can change it by a vote. Ask the association for the current version before relying on it.
Two things to confirm for yourself. First, no dues figure appears in any of these documents; ask the association for the current assessment and for the maintenance portion charged to that specific homesite. Second, ask the title company whether anything has been recorded against Summer Hill since November 2020, because the covenants may be amended at any time by owners holding seventy-five percent of the homesites.
The recorded copy on file here is a scan of paper rather than digital text, so individual words can be misread by the software that lifts the text out. Every answer below quotes the document's own wording so you can weigh it yourself, and the wording quoted was checked by eye against the scanned images of the original. None of this is legal advice; for anything that will decide your offer, get the recorded documents from the title company and have them read.
Perimeter fencing is barred at Summer Hill unless the Architectural Control Committee approves it for your homesite in advance and in writing. The ban is drawn very wide: it names chain link, split rail, hedges and other growing fences, and then any other kind of fence at all. A separate paragraph on protective screening says again that no chain link fence may be erected on a lot, and adds that there is to be no hedge or shrubbery planting on or along property lines. On homesites that back the drainage and retention ponds, no fence, wall, hedge or shrub may sit within thirty feet of the current water line. Treat a fence here as something you ask for rather than something you plan on, and get the approval in writing before anything goes in.
A detached storage building or a pet shelter is allowed only with the Architectural Control Committee's approval, obtained before construction or installation begins. The document sets the standard it has to meet: quality construction, maintained in an attractive and neat appearance, and blending with the established home. The committee may also require protective screening around it. There is one hard limit with a number on it: on homesites abutting the drainage and retention area, no such structure may be placed within forty feet of the current water line. Separately, no barn, outbuilding, shack, tent or other structure of a temporary character may be moved onto or built on a lot and used as a residence.
A camper or boat is not banned from the neighborhood outright, but it cannot stay. The declaration gives a forty-eight hour window: mobile homes, house trailers, boats, boat trailers, motor homes, camping trailers, recreational vehicles and their trailers may not be parked on any lot for longer than forty-eight hours. The next sentence puts snowmobiles, motorcycles and dune buggies under the same forty-eight hour limit. Two things the document does not say, and you should not assume either way: it never mentions a garage, so it does not address whether keeping a camper inside a closed garage changes the answer, and it does not say where on the lot one may sit during those forty-eight hours. The same paragraph also bars using any lot for the storage of old lumber, cars, materials or debris. If you own something that needs to live on site, ask the association in writing before you commit.
Above ground pools are not permitted at Summer Hill, and neither are tennis courts. Any other swimming pool may be constructed only after prior written approval from the Architectural Control Committee, so an in-ground pool is a request rather than a right. Two neighbouring paragraphs bear on it as well: a detached structure housing swimming pool apparatus is itself subject to committee approval, and on homesites abutting the drainage and retention area no such structure may go within forty feet of the current water line. The document sets no fencing, screening or setback standard for a pool itself, which leaves those to the committee's discretion.
Exterior changes run through the Architectural Control Committee, and the declaration is strict about it. No building or other structure may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a homesite, the natural topography and drainage may not be altered, and no landscaping, lawn or shrubbery may be installed, until the plans have been approved. Approval or disapproval is given in writing, the committee's decision is entirely within its discretion, and no change or deviation from approved plans may be made without its prior written consent. A later paragraph applies the same rule to a house already built: an owner may not paint, decorate or change the appearance of the exterior in any way that varies it from the approved plans without prior written consent. Awnings need committee approval. Driveway and chimney materials must be submitted for approval, and the committee may dictate the materials. One thing to ask about before you rely on any of this: the declaration says the committee's authority expires fifteen years after the recording of the plat on which your homesite sits, and both Summer Hill plats were recorded more than fifteen years ago, so ask the association who reviews requests today.
A satellite dish of twenty inches in diameter or less is the one thing this paragraph leaves alone. Anything above ground that is larger than that, and any outside television, AM, FM or short wave radio antenna of any type, may not be erected or maintained on a homesite or structure unless it is properly hidden from view, and whether it is hidden enough is at the discretion of the Architectural Control Committee. The same paragraph requires all public utility service, cable television included, to run underground and not be visible. Ask the association what it enforces today and where it has allowed dishes to be mounted.
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 here is unusually controlled, and a lot of it is not yours to do. The association maintains the lawn and landscaping of every homesite on a schedule it sets. An owner may plant, install or maintain flowers, trees, shrubbery or other plant materials only in accordance with the landscaping plan approved by the Architectural Control Committee, or in the area designated as the Personal Patio Garden. The landscaping plan itself has to be prepared and approved by a landscape designer the declarant designates. Every homesite must have an irrigation system built to the declarant's specification and installed by a designated contractor, the owner pays for the water, and the system must be regularly used. Yards must be planted with grass seed, sod or ground cover within one hundred twenty days of the home being completed or occupied, whichever comes first. A vegetable garden needs committee approval. No hedge or shrubbery may be planted on or along a property line, and between the front property line and the front building setback line nothing may grow higher than thirty-six inches unless it is part of approved residential landscaping with its prime root within twelve feet of the house. Owners stay responsible for their own trees: if the association writes asking for a tree to be maintained or removed and nothing happens within sixty days, it may do the work and charge the owner. The association's March 2023 responsibilities list adds board-level detail that is not in the recorded covenant, including that mulch in private beds is to be dark brown, that stone is an alternative if it matches the stone used along the pond banks, and that beds are expected to be refreshed each spring.
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 and cats may be kept. No other animals, livestock or poultry of any kind may be raised, bred or kept on a homesite. Two conditions ride on the dogs and cats: they may not be kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose, and they may not be permitted to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard in any manner. The document puts no number on how many you may have and says nothing about breed, size or leashing, so a limit of that kind would be a board rule rather than a covenant. A pet shelter structure counts as a detached building and needs Architectural Control Committee approval before it goes in. The home occupation paragraph separately rules out running any form of animal care or treatment from the home, naming dog trimming and an animal hospital.
You can rent a home at Summer Hill, but not on your own say-so. No lease of any dwelling unit may be entered into without the prior approval of the association, and no lease may run longer than one year. That is the whole of what the recorded document says. It does not state what the association weighs when it decides, how long a decision takes, whether a renewal counts as a new lease needing fresh approval, or whether there is any cap on how many homes may be rented at once. If renting is part of your plan, ask the board how it has handled approvals before you write an offer, and get the answer in writing.
Basketball hoops are out, both kinds. The declaration says no basketball hoops may be installed on a dwelling unit or homesite, then closes the usual workaround in the same sentence by adding that a portable basketball hoop is not permitted on any lot either. No approval route is offered for one, and nothing in the document distinguishes a driveway from a yard.
One for-sale sign of not more than five square feet is the only sign a homeowner may display to public view. The paragraph opens by barring signs of any kind on a homesite, then carves out that single sign, plus a builder's sign of any size during the construction and sales period. The declarant also reserved the right to put up its own signs to promote sales in the development. Political, security, contractor and holiday signs are not mentioned either way, so anything outside the for-sale exception is a question for the association rather than something the document permits.
Everyday cars are not really the subject here. The declaration allows a private garage for not more than three cars, does not limit ordinary car parking on a driveway, and says nothing at all about parking on the streets. What it does restrict is specific and time-limited: snowmobiles, motorcycles and dune buggies may not be parked on any lot for longer than forty-eight hours, and boats, trailers, motor homes and recreational vehicles carry the same forty-eight hour limit in the sentence before. No lot may be used for the storage of old lumber, cars, materials or debris, which is the clause that reaches a car left sitting. Driveways have their own rules: a minimum of twelve feet wide, built of asphalt, brick or concrete, with no stone or cinder driveways permitted, and a circular drive in front may be a minimum of eight feet wide.
A home occupation is permitted, inside tight limits. A lot may not be used for any purpose other than a single-family residence, except for a use conducted entirely within the dwelling unit, participated in solely by a member of the immediate family living there, which stays clearly incidental and secondary to using the home as a home. Four conditions come with it: no sign or display indicating from the exterior that the building is used for anything other than a dwelling; no commodity sold on the homesite; nobody employed other than a member of the immediate family living there; and no mechanical or electrical equipment used, which the document spells out as including welding tools and equipment and the construction of craft-type items intended to be offered for sale anywhere. It then names businesses that can never count as a home occupation: a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, a day care centre for children or adults including babysitting for hire, an animal hospital, and any form of animal care or treatment such as dog trimming. A laptop-and-phone business fits comfortably. Anything with customers arriving, employees, stock or equipment does not.
The declaration never uses the words short-term rental or vacation rental, names no platform, and sets no minimum stay. What it does say reaches a short let anyway, because a nightly or weekly booking is still a lease: no lease of any dwelling unit may be entered into without the prior approval of the association. On the face of that sentence a short-term rental needs the association's approval first, and the one-year ceiling on lease length does not help in the other direction. Because the document is silent on short stays specifically, ask the board directly what its position is rather than reading permission into the silence.
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, garbage and other waste must be kept in sanitary containers. The containers and any disposal equipment must be kept indoors except for pickup, and may go out no earlier than twelve hours before the expected pickup time, which in practice means the evening before. A homesite may not be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish, and no leaves, grass clippings, trash or other rubbish may be dumped into the drainage and retention area.
The declaration never mentions a grill, so this answer comes from its fires paragraph, and that paragraph is written broadly. It says no fire for vegetation, trash burning or otherwise may be permitted to burn upon any lot, street, sidewalk or roadway in the subdivision. The words or otherwise are what matter: on the face of that sentence a charcoal or wood fire on a lot is caught, and so is a fire pit. A gas grill is arguably a different question, since the flame is contained and the sentence is aimed at burning, but the document does not draw that line itself and you should not assume it does. In neighbourhoods with wording like this, what happens in practice usually comes down to what the board enforces rather than what the paragraph says, so ask the association before you plan around either reading.
Outdoor drying is not permitted. The declaration says no hanging of laundry, rugs or other items outside the dwelling unit is permitted, which is written widely enough to cover a clothesline, a folding drying rack and a rug thrown over a railing. No approval route is offered for one. The same sentence separately requires Architectural Control Committee approval for awnings.
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.