What the recorded documents actually say about The Forest at Edison Lakes P.U.D. in Mishawaka — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
21 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 amended and restated covenants for The Forest at Edison Lakes P.U.D., recorded October 6, 2006 as Document Number 0643569, together with the amendment recorded March 7, 2007. The 2006 instrument restates the declaration in its entirety, replacing the 1992 original and its 1996 and 1998 amendments, and it was adopted by owners of at least seventy-five percent of the homesites. The 2007 amendment changed only how assessments are collected, so every use restriction on this page comes from the 2006 text.
One thing to check against your own address. The Forest at Edison Lakes was built in phases, and more than one declaration was recorded for it. A separate declaration for Phases Four, Five, Six and Seven was recorded in 2001 and lists its lots individually; a declaration for Phases II and III was recorded in 1997 and amended in 1998, and no copy of it is in the file read here. All of them name the same association, The Forest Carriage Home Association, Inc., and the 2001 and 2006 texts run to the same numbered paragraphs under the same headings. Read side by side, though, five of those paragraphs are not the same, and three of them would change an answer on this page. Paragraph 19, fences: the 2001 text bars perimeter fencing except where the board of directors approves it in advance in writing, and the 2006 text drops that exception and leaves the ban flat. Paragraph 31, fires: the 2001 text reaches streets and roadways only, while the 2006 text adds the homesite itself, which is what closes the question on grilling here. Paragraph 25, signs: the 2006 text allows one for-sale sign of not more than five square feet at curbside, and the 2001 text allows no sign of any kind. The other two change the route rather than the answer. Paragraph 24 lets the 2001 text park a recreational vehicle either inside a garage or wherever the declarant or the board approves it in writing, while the 2006 text keeps only the garage and adds a ban on overnight parking of any vehicle on any street. Paragraph 30 has the 2001 text deferring to federal and state law on antennas and satellite dishes, and the 2006 text requiring the board's prior written consent instead.
The answers above are read from the 2006 restatement. It is the later instrument, it restates the covenants for the development in its entirety, and it was adopted by owners of at least seventy-five percent of the homesites. Its Exhibit A describes the land by metes and bounds with a parcel excepted out of it, and it never mentions the 2001 declaration, so the documents by themselves cannot show whether a particular Phase Four through Seven lot sits inside the land the 2006 restatement covers. If a fence, a grill, a for-sale sign or a camper is going to decide your purchase and your home is in one of those four phases, ask the title company or the St. Joseph County Recorder which declaration is recorded against your parcel, and read that paragraph in it.
The 2006 declaration describes the land it covers by metes and bounds rather than by lot number, with one parcel excepted out, so it is not possible to tell from the document alone whether a given address is inside or outside it. The 2007 amendment says the development has 111 lots.
Because the recorded copies are scans of paper rather than digital text, they were read by optical character recognition, so nothing here is presented as a direct quote from the summary. The verbatim wording sits beside each answer.
Perimeter fencing of any type is barred. The covenants spell out that this includes hedges and other growing fences, chain link and split rail, and then add any other kinds of fences. The only fence the paragraph contemplates is one the association itself may build: it reserves an easement over a ten-foot strip off the north side of seven named lots for constructing, repairing, maintaining and replacing a privacy fence along the southern right of way of Day Road.
A tool shed and a storage shed are both named in the list of structures that may not be used on a homesite at any time, temporarily or permanently, along with a trailer, tent, shack, garage, barn or other outbuilding of any type or nature. The covenants give no approval route for one.
Recreational vehicles, commercial and work trucks, and any vehicle other than an automobile may not be parked on a homesite or on the roads within the development, with one exception written into the same sentence: when enclosed entirely within a garage that is part of a dwelling. So the covenants do contemplate a recreational vehicle being kept here, inside a closed garage. Whether a particular camper or boat fits is a practical question about the garage, not a question the covenants answer. Overnight parking of any vehicle on a street is separately barred.
Swimming pools are barred. The recreational facilities paragraph names them alongside basketball hoops and tennis courts and says none of those, or other similar outdoor recreational facilities, may be erected or maintained on a homesite. It draws no distinction between in-ground and above-ground, and it provides no approval route.
An owner may not paint, decorate or make any change to the appearance of any part of the exterior of the dwelling that is not in accordance with the original construction, without the prior written approval of the Board of Directors. Separately, no building or other structure may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a homesite, and the natural topography or drainage may not be altered, unless the construction plans or the plans for the topographical alteration and the landscaping plan have been submitted to the Architectural Committee for review and then approved by the Board. Awnings need Board approval. Note that the association itself handles paint and repair of exterior doors, gutters, downspouts and exterior building surfaces, so some of what an owner might think of as an exterior change is the association's job rather than a request.
Outside above-ground AM, FM and shortwave radio antennas, and satellite dishes of any type, may not be erected or maintained on a dwelling, a homesite or anywhere else on the property without the prior written consent of the Board of Directors. The covenants set no size limit and describe no application process, so the Board's consent is the whole of the route. All public utility services including cable television are required to run underground.
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 →Owners may plant, install or maintain flowers, trees, shrubbery or other plant materials on a homesite only with the approval of the Board of Directors. Each homesite gets one private garden area, not to exceed four feet by eight feet, which has to be contiguous to the rear patio, and the owner maintains it. The association pays for maintaining the lawns inside each homesite as a common expense, but common area maintenance does not include caring for shrubs and trees the developer did not plant, or flowers and other plants on a homesite. The association removes dead trees provided they were there when the home was built. Landscaping an owner installs after purchase is the owner's to maintain.
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. Animals, livestock and poultry of any other kind may not be raised, bred or kept on a homesite. No pet may be kept, bred or maintained for a commercial purpose, and none may be permitted to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard in any manner. The covenants set no limit on the number of pets and no leash or waste rule; the association can adopt rules on those separately.
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 →Basketball hoops are named first in the recreational facilities paragraph and may not be erected or maintained on a homesite, along with tennis courts, swimming pools and other similar outdoor recreational facilities. The covenants draw no distinction between a permanent post and a portable hoop, and they offer no approval route.
One sign of not more than five square feet advertising the homesite for sale is allowed, and it may be displayed only at curbside. Anything else displayed to public view on a homesite is barred. The declarant reserved a right to put up signs for The Forest at Edison Lakes to promote and sell homesites. The covenants say nothing about political, security or contractor signs.
Two rules sit in the same paragraph. On a homesite or on the roads within the development, no commercial or work trucks, recreational vehicles, or vehicles other than automobiles may be parked, unless enclosed entirely within a garage that is part of a dwelling. And no overnight parking of any vehicle at all is permitted on any street. Ordinary daytime parking of a car in a driveway is not addressed. Where two or more dwellings share part of a driveway, the covenants create reciprocal easements subject to the by-laws.
A home occupation is permitted, and the covenants define it narrowly. It must be conducted entirely within the dwelling and carried on solely by a member of the immediate family living there, and it must be clearly incidental and secondary to residential use without changing the dwelling's character. Five conditions come with it: no sign or display indicating from the exterior that the dwelling is used for anything else; no commodity may be sold on the homesite; nobody may be employed on the homesite other than an immediate family member living there; no mechanical or electrical equipment may be used; and the services may not require on-street parking. The covenants name uses that can never count as a home occupation: a barber shop, styling salon, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, animal hospital, or any form of animal care or treatment such as dog trimming.
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 →Garbage, trash and refuse must be stored in appropriate containers inside the unit, garage included, and kept there until no earlier than sundown of the evening before scheduled collection. It goes out in sealed disposable plastic bags or other containers approved for collection, placed at the curb. All equipment and containers used to store or dispose of it must be kept clean and sanitary. A separate paragraph bars oil and fuel storage tanks on a homesite altogether.
The fires paragraph is short and it reaches the homesite itself, not just the streets: no fire may be permitted to burn upon any homesite, street or roadway in the property. It carries no qualifier such as open fire or trash fire, so on the face of that wording a charcoal fire on your own patio is caught by it. The covenants never mention a grill, charcoal or gas, so whether a gas grill counts as a fire burning is a genuinely different question the document does not settle. Before you plan an outdoor kitchen, get the association's position in writing.
Hanging laundry outside the dwelling is not permitted. The sentence sits in the temporary structures paragraph rather than under a heading of its own, and it covers laundry, rugs and the like. There is no rear-yard or screened exception written into 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 →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.