What the recorded documents actually say about The Farm in Middlebury — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
9 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
Read this part first, because the paperwork for The Farm is in an unusual state and it changes how much weight these answers can carry.
These answers come from the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions of The Farm, made on September 22, 2003 by Fisher Trust as declarant. The copy on file is a photocopy of the signed original: the trustee's signature is on it, a notary signed and pressed a seal beside it on the same date, and the Exhibit A land description covers 109.34 acres in Section 35, Township 38 North, Range 7 East, York Township, Elkhart County. It is plainly this subdivision's own declaration. What it does not carry is a county recorder stamp or a recording number, so the copy on file cannot by itself prove it is the recorded version. Order the recorded declaration from the Elkhart County Recorder, or ask the title company for it, before relying on any single clause here.
The copy on file has also been marked up by hand, and the markings are proposals rather than rules. Someone has drawn red lines through several passages and written replacement wording beside them in blue. The marked passages are: the lawn and tree standards, which in the printed text required hydro-seeded or drill-seeded lawns and specific front-yard trees and have been crossed out and replaced in handwriting with a note that seeding is acceptable and trees are as approved by the committee; an awning rule; a chimney and flue rule; a requirement that site work, excavation and septic systems be done by one named contractor; and a handwritten addition saying livestock is allowed on four particular lots at no more than one animal per acre. None of those handwritten changes are signed, dated or recorded. The answers below follow the printed text, which is what the declarant actually executed, and the handwritten notes are reported only where it matters.
Two of the printed landscaping requirements cannot be read at all in this copy, because the handwriting was placed over them. A later paragraph still refers back to them for tree type and size, so if trees matter to you, ask the association for a clean copy.
A separate 31-page document circulates with this neighborhood and should not be mistaken for the governing covenants. It carries the same body text as the 2003 declaration, with the handwritten changes typed in, and it shows a recording stamp and a 2021 instrument number as ordinary typed characters rather than as a stamp. It is an editable word-processor file with its revision marks still live and visible. Nobody has signed it. And the page where it should be signed says it is being executed for a differently named development, by a different company, not by Fisher Trust. Whatever that document eventually became, the copy in circulation is a working draft and does not govern.
The minimum house sizes are a related casualty. The printed table in the 2003 declaration was left blank and filled in by hand, and the copies in circulation have been filled in differently: two of them give 1,800 square feet for a one-story and 2,200 for the other two types, while a developer sales sheet for The Farm gives 2,200 and 2,400. Treat every one of those as unconfirmed and ask the association or the title company which figures govern.
What is not in these documents at all: anything about solar panels, and anything about repairing a vehicle. Those are genuine silences, not gaps in the copy.
Fencing is allowed but tightly controlled, and every fence needs the committee's written approval. No visible perimeter fencing of any type is permitted on a homesite, with one exception for fencing the governing board approves in the landscaping easements. For fencing that is allowed: height may not exceed five feet; no chain link, wire or split rail; materials have to suit the overall architecture of the home and the country farm estate theme; fenced areas must be placed toward the back of the lot from the rear building line of the house; fencing must stay out of utility easements and keep a minimum five-foot side and back yard setback so the yard can be maintained; and the owner is responsible for the condition and appearance of it. No hedge or perimeter fence of any type may go within thirty feet of the waterfront on a pond lot. A fence around a swimming pool is approved as part of the pool approval and still has to meet these standards. Invisible fences are separately permitted, at the owner's own risk and expense.
An ordinary storage shed is out, but a purpose-built storage unit or carriage house is allowed if the committee approves it. The declaration bars any tool shed, storage shed, barn, garage, outbuilding or temporary structure of any type from being used or placed on a homesite, except a construction trailer while the house is being built. In its place it allows a separate free-standing storage unit or carriage house on seven conditions: it is approved by the committee as part of the approval of the house plans; it is built on a permanent concrete foundation; its siding, roof, exterior doors, windows, lighting and other materials match the house in type, colour, style, quality and finish; it does not block the expected sight lines and views from neighbouring homes, as the committee judges; a carriage house sits no closer to the front boundary than the front building line of the house, and a storage unit no closer than the rear building line; its placement has separate written committee approval; and it is not used as a garage unless it meets the garage size rules. The declaration also says general storage space for mowers, lawn and sporting equipment and spare furnishings is to be built into the garage or basement of the house.
The declaration names both a time allowance and a permitted place, so this is a restriction on where and how long rather than a flat ban. Snowmobiles, recreational vehicles, motorcycles, inoperative vehicles, trailers, ATVs and dune buggies may not be parked on a homesite for longer than forty-eight hours unless they are located entirely within an enclosed building. So a camper or boat kept inside a closed garage or outbuilding is expressly contemplated, and the same vehicle left out in the open is limited to two days. Separately, no homesite may be used for exterior storage of motor vehicles, and tarps are not an acceptable way to store anything outside an enclosed structure. Pond lots have their own rule: watercraft may not exceed fourteen feet long or about four and a half feet wide, no internal combustion engines may be mounted or carried on a boat in the ponds, no jet skis are allowed, and boats and flotation devices must be stored neatly.
In-ground pools are allowed with prior written approval; above-ground pools are not. The declaration says no above-ground pools are permitted, and that in-ground swimming pools and spas may be built only after the committee has approved the design, appearance and location in writing. Any pool fence is approved as part of the pool approval and must also meet the general fencing standards. The committee is told to treat privacy and security as goals of any pool plan. Pool drainage, backwash and other water releases may not discharge into the ponds or the wetland areas. Tennis and sport courts are handled in the same paragraph and are judged case by case on setting, appearance, lighting, noise, construction and landscaping, also with prior written approval.
Nothing is built or altered outside until the architectural control committee approves it in writing, and the builder has to be approved too. The requirement covers erecting, constructing, placing, maintaining or altering any house, structure or improvement, and it also covers changing the natural topography or drainage of a homesite. Plans must show the floor plan, exterior type and finish, well and septic systems, materials, outside colours, how the external design sits with existing homes, and the location relative to lot lines, topography and finish grade elevations. Three complete sets go in; two are retained and one comes back to the builder or owner. Approval or disapproval is in writing, no structure that does not fully comply with the approved plans may be built or kept, and no change from approved plans is allowed without the committee's prior written consent. Expect at least thirty days after plans are received. The committee's decision is entirely within its discretion.
One small dish is expressly permitted, with strict placement and screening rules. The declaration allows a satellite dish not exceeding eighteen inches, written in the document as eighteen inches in circumference, on any homesite subject to these conditions: it must sit in the perimeter landscape portion of the homesite with at least three complementary shrubs or bushes next to it; if the needed direction is not available in the perimeter landscaping, a separate clump-style landscaping area has to be created to hide it; and it may not go on the roof or on any other part of the house or its porches, breezeways or garages if it would be visible from the street or from another homesite in or next to the subdivision, unless the committee approves that in writing. All public utility service including cable television has to run underground and must not be visible. The declaration does not mention any other kind of antenna.
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 one of the most heavily regulated subjects here. All lawn and landscape plans must be approved by the committee before the home is occupied, and the printed minimum standards include a professionally installed lawn irrigation system, with only committee-approved naturally wooded or wetland areas exempt; irrigation water must come from a well, not from a pond or retention area; all of the minimum criteria must be met within six months of occupancy; landscaping must be continuously maintained to a high standard with no weeds, leaves, litter or trash accumulating; replacement of any required tree that dies or is damaged is the owner's responsibility; and nothing that blocks sight lines at an intersection or a driveway may be planted or left standing. Existing trees on a homesite must stay and be maintained, and may only be removed as part of an approved plan. Vegetable, fruit and flower gardens are allowed up to five hundred square feet, with vegetation no more than three feet high, set back at least fifteen feet from side and rear yards or thirty feet from pond frontage, never in a front yard or forward of the rear building line, with no compost mounds, no sprinkler or shade structures or lean-tos, and no growing for commercial sale. Lots must be kept free of rubbish and weeds with grass at a reasonable height, and the association may cut an owner's grass at the owner's cost after ten days notice. Two caveats on this answer: the printed lawn-seeding standard and the printed front-yard landscaping standard are crossed out by hand in the copy on file and replaced with handwritten notes, and the two printed tree standards are covered over by that handwriting and cannot be read at all, even though a later paragraph still refers back to them.
The mailbox is not the owner's choice. Every home has to have a mailbox of the size, style, quality, uniform address numbers and appearance that the committee establishes. The owner has to keep it in good working order and looking right. The committee can change the approved type or style going forward if a style stops being available. A paper box is built into the mailbox design, and additional paper boxes are prohibited. A developer sales sheet in circulation describes a one-time fee covering a copper mailbox, paper box and address numbers, but that sheet is marketing rather than part of the declaration, so ask the association what the mailbox standard and the charge are now.
Household pets are allowed, with real limits on number and behaviour. No animals, livestock or poultry of any kind may be raised, bred or kept on a homesite, except dogs, cats and other household pets, provided they are not kept, bred or maintained commercially and are not allowed to become a neighbourhood nuisance or hazard. Pets must be confined to the owner's property or on a leash off it, and letting a pet off the property unleashed is forbidden. No kennels are allowed. More than two pets of the same kind requires written approval from the committee. No owner or resident may keep a dog or other pet trained for territorial protection or attack, or one that is vicious, which the declaration defines as having bitten an animal or a person in an unprovoked attack or having shown other vicious tendencies. One thing to check with the association: a handwritten note added to the copy on file says livestock is allowed on four particular lots at no more than one animal per acre. That note is not signed, dated or recorded, and the printed text it sits beside bars livestock everywhere.
Renting out a home is permitted, and approval is only triggered by a long tenancy. No home may be leased or rented for more than twelve consecutive months without prior approval of the committee or the association, which leaves a lease of twelve months or less outside the approval requirement on the face of the wording. The owner stays responsible for all assessments, and a tenant is jointly and severally responsible for assessments that come due during the lease. Both the tenant and the owner are responsible for complying with all of the covenants. Separately, guest quarters built as part of a carriage house may never be used for rental purposes.
Basketball goals are allowed, but not on the house, and they need written approval. No hoop or backboard may be attached to a house or to a detached building. A free-standing goal, whether portable or permanently set, must be black or painted to match the body colour of the home, the backboard itself being excluded from that colour rule, and has to be kept in good repair. Every goal unit is subject to written approval by the committee.
One small for-sale sign, and little else. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a homesite except a single sign of not more than five square feet advertising the property for sale. Temporary signs such as garage sale signs have to come down within twenty-four hours after the sale. No signs are allowed in the common areas at all. The declarant keeps a separate right to put up whatever signs it wants to promote and sell lots and homes in the development. The home business paragraph adds that no sign or display may indicate from the outside that the home is used for anything other than a residence.
Parking is specifically regulated, including overnight. No vehicle may be parked on any street between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and anything parked overnight has to be entirely inside an enclosed building or on a driveway. No automotive vehicles or trailers of any kind, or parts of them, working or not, may be parked, kept, stored or otherwise maintained on any street or on a lawn area. Recreational vehicles, trailers, motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, dune buggies and inoperative vehicles are limited to forty-eight hours on a homesite unless kept entirely within an enclosed building. Driveways have their own rules: at least sixteen feet wide, at least four inches of concrete, and no stone, cinder or asphalt, with decorative cobblestone or brick near the house allowed only on written committee approval. Every home must have a full-size attached garage holding at least two cars and no more than three, or an approved carriage house garage instead of or in addition to it, and garages are to be side-presenting unless the committee approves otherwise in writing.
A home office is simply allowed; a home business is allowed on conditions. The declaration says homesites are used exclusively for residential purposes, then states that home offices are allowed within the home and that home businesses may also be permitted where the use is conducted entirely inside the home, is carried on solely by a member of the immediate family living there, and is clearly incidental and secondary to living there without changing the character of the home. It adds that the business should not be obvious to neighbours or casual observers, and that increased vehicle traffic, loading and unloading of equipment or products, and businesses with customers or patrons coming and going are not permitted. Four further limits are spelled out: no sign or display showing from the outside that the building is used for anything but a residence; no business product sold or service provided to customers or patrons coming or going from the homesite; no employee other than an immediate family member living there; and no mechanical or electrical equipment used to manufacture a product.
The declaration never uses the words short-term, nightly or vacation rental, so this is read from the two paragraphs that do touch it. The leasing paragraph only requires approval for a lease of more than twelve consecutive months, which means a short stay is not caught by that requirement on the face of the wording. The storage paragraph is stricter about one specific space: guest quarters built as part of a carriage house are for temporary accommodation only, for no more than thirty consecutive days at a time, and may never be used for rental purposes or lived in permanently. So renting out a carriage house guest suite is expressly out, while a short rental of the home itself is not addressed either way. Because the association can adopt policies and procedures of its own, ask the board what rule is in force before counting on short-stay 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 →Containers stay indoors except around pickup. No homesite may be used or kept as a dumping ground for rubbish. Trash, garbage and other waste may only be kept in sanitary containers. All incinerators and other equipment for storing or disposing of such material must be kept clean and sanitary and kept indoors except for pickup, and containers may go out no earlier than twelve hours before the expected pickup time. A separate paragraph bars burning debris, garbage or rubbish anywhere on the property, and another bars exterior storage of lumber, firewood intended for resale, materials, junk, waste, debris or grass clippings, with discarded furniture, appliances, building materials, tools and automotive parts all counted as waste. Lots have to be kept free of rubbish and weeds, and after ten days notice the association may clean up at the owner's cost.
This is one of the few covenants in the area that actually names barbecues. The ban is aimed at waste: no burning, burn pits or other incineration devices may operate or be placed on any homesite, street, roadway or common area for the purpose of disposing of debris, garbage or rubbish. The very next sentence treats cooking fires as a separate, permitted category needing permission first: burn pits or exterior fireplaces for outdoor barbecues or campfires require the written approval of the committee before they are installed. Read together, a built-in fire feature is available with prior written approval, and nothing in the paragraph reaches an ordinary portable grill, which the document never mentions. If a fire pit matters to you, get the committee's written approval before you build it.
Line drying is not banned, but it has to be out of sight. The declaration requires that all clothes drying facilities be discreet in location and concealed from the view of neighbouring property and of public property. It gives no height, size or material standard and names no approval step, so the test it sets is visibility. Since the committee reviews exterior improvements generally, ask before installing anything permanent.
Flags are allowed; flagpoles need approval; and which flags may fly is limited. A flag displayed on a bracket attached to the house or the porch is acceptable, provided the bracket and the flag are kept in good repair. A flagpole is judged case by case and requires the written approval of the architectural review committee. The declaration then limits what may be flown to the United States flag and the Indiana state flag. Note that federal law protects the display of the United States flag in some circumstances regardless of what a covenant says, so if a specific flag matters, that is worth asking a lawyer or the association about.
The declaration says nothing about curtains, blinds or what an owner displays in a window, so on window treatments it is silent. What it does control is seasonal decoration and one window-adjacent item. Holiday and seasonal decorations have to be removed within thirty days after the holiday. And the printed text requires committee approval before any awning is put up on a homesite, though that sentence is one of the passages crossed out by hand in the copy on file, so confirm with the association whether the awning rule still stands.
Tell us the question and we will get you the answer from the recorded documents.