What the recorded documents actually say about The Pines of Pheasant Ridge in Bristol — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
10 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 document: the Amended and Restated Protective Restrictions, Covenants, Limitations and Easements for Pheasant Ridge and The Forest, recorded with the Elkhart County Recorder in 2005 as instrument 2005 32011. It governs more than twenty plats together, and it names The Pines of Pheasant Ridge among them, describing it as a replat of Lots 88 and 90 of Pheasant Ridge Fourth recorded in Plat Book 18, page 51. So these are this neighborhood's own rules rather than a neighbor's. One consequence worth knowing: the rules are shared with the rest of Pheasant Ridge, The Forest and Baywater, and a few clauses set different minimum house sizes for lots next to a lake and for lots in The Forest.
This document replaced the earlier Pheasant Ridge covenants from 1990 and the amendments from 1991, 1993, 1996 and 1998. Those older papers also sit in the file for this neighborhood and no longer govern on their own, so a copy handed to you could easily be a superseded one. Check the date on any copy before relying on it.
Nothing recorded after 2005 appeared in the documents available here, which is not the same as there being nothing. The board can amend the covenants with a majority ratification vote, and it can raise the yearly assessment within limits, so both the rules and the dollar figures may have moved since 2005 without anything in this file showing it.
The copy read here is a scan of paper. The digital text that came with it is itself older character recognition with visible errors in individual words, so the clauses were cross-read against two further scans of the same recording to be sure of the substance. Even so, for anything you will act on, order the recorded instrument from the Elkhart County Recorder or ask your title company for it, and ask the Pheasant Ridge Homeowner's Association in writing for its current rules and its current assessment.
No fence of any kind may go up on a lot without advance written approval from the Architectural Control Committee. The declaration is unusually broad about what counts as a fence: perimeter fencing of any type, hedges and other growing fences, chain link and split rail are all named, and then any other kind of fence. There is no height or material a lot owner may put up as of right, so the approval step is the whole rule. Two other provisions limit plantings that function as a fence. Screen planting may not exceed 72 inches high between the building setback line and the front lot line, or within 30 feet of the rear lot line on lots abutting the river or creek. And on a corner lot, nothing between 2 and 6 feet above the roadway may block sight lines inside the triangle formed by the street lines and a line joining them 25 feet from the intersection, with the same limit applying within 10 feet of where a driveway meets the street.
A detached shed, play house, play structure, pet shelter, or any structure built to store lawn tools, toys or pool equipment needs the Architectural Control Committee's written approval before construction starts. The declaration also states the standards it will be judged against: quality construction, maintained in attractive and neat appearance, and blending with the established home. The committee may require protective screening around the structure. On lots abutting the river, no such structure is permitted within 30 feet of the rear lot line. A well or pump house needs written committee approval as well. Separately, no trailer, basement, tent, shack, garage, barn or other outbuilding may be used as a residence at any time, temporarily or permanently.
The declaration bans campers, trailers, trucks, boats and snowmobiles from open areas, and it reaches open areas both on and off the lot owner's own lot. What it does not do is define what an open area is, and this sentence says nothing about a garage in either direction, so a camper closed inside a garage is simply not addressed by the words on the page. The same numbered section carries a separate rule about motor vehicles generally: none may be parked or stored on a street or lawn area, no vehicle may sit on a street between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and anything parked overnight has to be entirely within a garage or driveway. That sentence is written about motor vehicles rather than recreational ones, so treat it as context and not as permission. If you own a camper, boat or trailer, get the Association's position in writing before you buy.
Above ground pools are not permitted. An in-ground pool is permitted, but only after the Architectural Control Committee approves the plans and specifications in writing, and that same approval covers any lighting fixtures and fencing for the pool. The declaration groups pools with permanent and paved recreational and athletic facilities, so a surrounding deck or pad is part of what gets reviewed, and approval for paving of any kind is required in its own right.
Nothing may be built, placed or altered on a lot, and the natural topography and drainage of a lot may not be changed, until the Architectural Control Committee has approved the plans. The submission is specific: two complete sets of plans showing floor plan, quality of construction materials, outside colors, how the external design sits with existing structures, and location against lot lines, topography and finish grade. One set is returned to the owner. An approval or a denial must be in writing, and a denial must state its reasons. Paving of any kind, including for parking or recreation, needs approval, and a dwelling must be built by a builder the committee has approved. The committee is three people appointed by the Association's board, and the declaration says its decisions are entirely within its discretion. One material rule is fixed rather than discretionary: all chimneys must be masonry construction or exterior masonry veneer.
Dishes and antennas are treated differently here. Outside above-ground television, AM, FM and short-wave radio antennas of any type are prohibited on any lot or structure in the subdivision. Satellite and digital television dishes are permitted but capped at 18 inches in diameter, and where possible they must be positioned so as not to be visible from the street. Separately, all utility service, including electric, gas, telephone and cable television, has to run underground and not be visible. If the placement of a dish matters to you, ask the Association how it applies the 18-inch limit in practice.
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 →Every lot must be kept in good and orderly fashion with landscaping in keeping with the pattern established in the subdivision, and no lot may be left overgrown or weed infested. One requirement catches buyers by surprise: every lot must have an underground irrigation system capable of adequately watering all cultivated areas, kept in good working order and run often enough to keep things growing. Front, side and rear yards must be planted with grass, sod or ground cover within 120 days of the home being completed or occupied, whichever comes first, and on wooded lots the strip between the tree line and the curb must be planted too. Two adjoining lots in the same ownership count as one lot for this purpose. On a vacant lot, after 10 days notice to cure, the Association may do the weed or rubbish work and bill the owner.
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 are permitted. Animals, livestock and poultry of any kind are otherwise prohibited, and the household-pet exception carries two conditions: 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. No number limit and no breed or weight limit appears in the declaration. A detached pet shelter is a structure, so it needs Architectural Control Committee approval before it goes up.
Renting a home here involves the Association directly. No lease of a dwelling unit may be entered into without the Association's prior approval, and a lease it approves may not run longer than one year. The declaration does not say what the Association weighs in deciding, or how long it has to answer. If renting the home out is part of your plan, get the Association's process and its current position in writing before you commit.
What the declaration addresses is a permanent or paved basketball court, not a portable hoop. A basketball court is grouped with tennis and volleyball courts as a permanent or paved recreational and athletic facility, and none of those may be erected, built or installed on a lot until the Architectural Control Committee has approved the plans and specifications in writing. Lighting and fencing for such a facility need the same approval. A freestanding or driveway-mounted hoop is not named either way. Note that paving of any kind needs committee approval, so a new pad poured for a hoop would be reviewed even though the hoop itself is not mentioned.
One sign of no more than 5 square feet advertising the property for sale or rent is permitted. A builder may use a sign of any dimension to advertise property for sale or rent and during the construction and sales period. The clause is written as a ban on signs of any kind displayed to public view on a lot, with only those exceptions, so political, contractor, security and yard-event signs have no exception in this document.
Three rules apply and they are specific. No motor vehicle of any kind may be parked, kept, stored or otherwise maintained on any street or lawn area. No vehicle may be parked on a street between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Anything parked overnight must be entirely within a garage or driveway. Driveways themselves are regulated: no stone or cinder, asphalt or concrete only, at least 4 inches thick and at least 12 feet wide, with a circular drive in front of a home at least 8 feet wide. Paving of any kind needs Architectural Control Committee approval first. Campers, trailers, trucks, boats and snowmobiles have their own separate rule.
Under a paragraph the declaration itself heads Home Occupations, no lot may be used for any purpose other than as a single-family residence, and no approval route is offered for a business use. The declaration draws no line between a business with customers, employees or signage coming to the property and a laptop in a spare bedroom, and it does not use the words home office, so an owner who plans to work from home may want the Association's position in writing. The sign rule points the same way: the only signs permitted are for-sale or for-rent signs and builder signs, so a business sign would have no exception.
The declaration never uses the words short-term, nightly or vacation rental, and it was recorded in 2005. What it does have is a lease rule written to cover leases generally: no lease of a dwelling unit may be entered into without the Association's prior approval, and an approved lease may not exceed one year. On its face that reaches a short stay as much as a long one, because the restriction is on leasing at all rather than on any minimum duration. The one-year limit is a ceiling, not a floor, so it does not by itself bar a short booking. This is the kind of question an association tends to settle by policy rather than by the recorded text, so ask the Association in writing before counting on rental 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 →Trash, garbage and other waste may be kept only in sanitary containers, and the equipment used to store or dispose of it must be kept in clean and sanitary condition. No lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish, grass clippings, leaves, tree limbs or compost, so a backyard compost pile is not contemplated by this wording. Collection happens on one day each week, and the Association's board sets which day. While a home is under construction all debris must be contained so it does not litter adjoining property, and if loose debris becomes a general nuisance the Association may clean it up at the lot owner's cost.
The declaration never mentions a grill, a barbecue, or cooking in any form, so nothing here speaks to a charcoal or gas grill directly. What it has is a ban on open burning, inside a paragraph about garbage and refuse disposal: no open burning is permitted on any lot, whether in incinerators, containers or otherwise. Everything the prohibition then lists is waste material, including trash, refuse, building materials, leaves, tree limbs, grass clippings and debris, followed by a catch-all covering any other material of any kind or description. A contained cooking grill is not open burning of waste on the face of that wording, but the catch-all is broad enough that an owner who wants certainty, particularly about a fire pit rather than a grill, should get the Association's position 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 →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.