What the recorded documents actually say about Villas of Park Meadows at Clover Trails in Goshen — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
14 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
WHAT THIS PAGE RESTS ON. One recorded instrument as amended: the Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions of The Villas of Park Meadows at Clover Trails, recorded in Elkhart County on May 11, 2005 as instrument 2005-14223, and the Amendment and Correction to it recorded later the same year as instrument 2005-22598. Both were read in full. The declaration runs to thirty-five numbered paragraphs, and paragraphs 8 through 30 hold the restrictions the answers below come from. The association's Code of Bylaws is also on file and was read for the association section.
THE NAME MATTERS HERE. Three separate developments in this area carry similar names. These covenants are for The Villas of Park Meadows at Clover Trails, declared in 2005 by RT, LLC. They are not the covenants for Clover Trails itself, which is an older subdivision with its own declarations from the 1990s by a different developer, and they are not The Villas of Clover Trails either. A 1996 declaration for Clover Trails Section 2 was in the documents pulled for this neighborhood and was set aside for that reason - none of the answers below come from it.
WHAT THESE COVENANTS DO NOT SETTLE. The declaration was written for a neighborhood being built and it repeatedly defers to an architectural control committee whose standards are not written down. It also allowed the developer to add adjacent land, so the exact boundary of what is bound today is a title question rather than one this page can answer. The association's dues are set by budget and no figure appears in either document. Anything recorded after 2005, and any rule the board adopted outside the recorded covenants, would not appear here. The recorded copies on file are scans of paper rather than digital text, so individual words can be misread in conversion, which is why each answer carries the document's own wording.
A CAUTION ABOUT THE SUMMARY SHEET. A one-page flyer headed Covenants Strictly Prohibit circulates with listings here. It is a useful index but it is not the covenant, and on two points it is stricter than the recorded text: it says fencing of any type is prohibited when the declaration bars perimeter fencing but allows a privacy fence to screen a patio or deck with committee approval, and it lists recreational vehicles as prohibited when the declaration gives a forty-eight hour allowance. Where they differ, the recorded declaration is what binds.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU RELY ON IT. Have your title company or the Elkhart County Recorder confirm the covenants recorded against the specific parcel and pull any later amendment, and ask the association for its current assessment, what the assessment covers, and the committee's current standards.
Perimeter fencing is out, but a privacy fence has a route. The declaration says no perimeter fencing of any type is allowed, and that privacy fences may be used only to screen a patio, deck or similar area, and then only after the architectural control committee approves. No height, material or colour standard is written down, so what the committee will accept is not something the text answers. Note that the one-page flyer circulating with listings here says fencing of any type is prohibited; the recorded declaration is narrower than that, and it is the recorded declaration that binds.
Sheds are ruled out, and the covenants explain why. No storage sheds or any outside buildings are permitted, the stated reason being the small size of the lots and the uniform appearance the declaration is aiming for. A second paragraph reinforces it by barring any trailer, mobile home, tent, shack, garage, barn, tool shed, storage shed or other outbuilding of any type from being placed on a homesite, temporarily or permanently, with the one exception of a construction trailer while the house is being built. There is no approval route offered for a shed.
There is a time allowance rather than a flat ban. Snowmobiles, recreational vehicles, motorcycles and dune buggies may not be parked outside of permitted structures on a homesite for longer than forty-eight hours - so a short stop to load or unload is contemplated, and anything longer has to be inside a permitted structure or off the property. Two other paragraphs bear on it: no homesite may be used for storage of lumber, firewood, motor vehicles, materials, junk, waste, debris or grass clippings, and no trailer or mobile home of any type may be placed on a homesite at all. Boats are not named in the forty-eight hour sentence, which is worth asking the association about if you own one. The flyer circulating with listings here treats recreational vehicles as simply prohibited, which is stricter than the recorded wording.
Pools are not permitted here, and neither are hot tubs. The declaration says no tennis courts and no pools, hot tubs or other similar devices or structures are permitted on any lot, and gives the reason as the limited size of the lots. There is no approval route and no exception for an above-ground or inflatable pool in the wording.
Everything outside goes through the committee, and the reach is wide. No dwelling, structure or improvement may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered on a homesite, and the natural grade or drainage may not be altered, until the builder and the construction plans, and the landscaping plans, have been approved by the architectural control committee. The plans have to show floor plan, exterior type and finish, materials, outside colors, how the design sits with existing structures, and location against lot lines. Two complete sets go in, one is kept and one comes back, and approval or refusal is in writing. Nothing may be built that does not comply fully with the approved plans, and no deviation is allowed without the committee's prior written consent. Awnings are called out separately and are not permitted without committee approval, and driveways need committee approval too.
A small dish is expressly allowed, with detailed placement rules, and everything else has to stay out of sight. All public utility service, including cable television, runs underground and must not be visible. A satellite dish is permitted if it does not exceed eighteen inches, and it has to go either in the perimeter landscaped part of the homesite with at least three complementary shrubs or bushes next to it, or attached on the back half of the roof in an inconspicuous spot - and either way the location has to be approved by the committee. If the signal direction cannot be got from the perimeter landscaping, a clump-like landscaped area has to be made with an artificial rock or another committee-approved cover over the dish. The dish may never sit on a roof or any other part of the house, porch, breezeway or garage where it would be visible from the street or from another homesite in or next to the development. Federal rules on antenna installation can also bear on how a clause like this is enforced, which is a question for a lawyer rather than for this page.
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 approved in advance and then largely done for you. As part of getting a house approved, the owner or builder submits lawn and landscaping plans in two sets, with the location, type, size and variety of trees, shrubs and plants, and the committee has to approve them in writing before construction starts. Once approved, the owner has to maintain the lawn and landscaping consistently with those plans. The association itself handles basic lawn care and basic landscaping preservation on the lots. Gardens are allowed only behind the rear building line, capped at three hundred square feet, with nothing growing over forty-two inches, and have to be kept clean, neat and free of debris. Underground lawn sprinkler systems are expressly prohibited, as are gazebos and other yard structures.
Mailboxes are standardised by the committee. Every dwelling has to have one, it has to be kept in good working order and maintained to look presentable at all times by the owner, and the architectural control committee sets the style, which may allow for different sizes or double containers. Newspaper boxes are expressly prohibited - a detail worth knowing, because the neighbouring Jefferson Ridge covenants require the opposite.
Household pets are allowed, and the conditions are stricter than most. No animals, livestock or poultry may be raised, bred or kept on a homesite except that dogs, cats or other household pets may be kept, provided they are not kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose and are not allowed to become a neighborhood nuisance or hazard. Then the specifics: any pet of any type must be leashed and attended at all times, pets may not be left outside the dwelling at night, and the owner is responsible for immediate clean-up of any waste. No number limit is written down.
Renting is allowed, with a limit on the term. No lease of a dwelling may be entered into for more than one year without the prior approval of the association. The owner stays responsible for all assessments whatever the lease says, and the tenant is jointly and severally liable for assessments falling due during the tenancy - so an unpaid assessment can follow the tenant as well as the owner. Nothing in the declaration requires the association to approve a tenant or caps how many homes may be rented.
The declaration never uses the word basketball, but it does sweep in what a hoop would be. Because of the small lots and the association's lawn maintenance arrangements, underground lawn sprinkler devices, sandboxes, swing sets, slides, gazebos and other yard structures, devices and playground equipment are expressly prohibited on any homesite. A free-standing hoop on a pole in the yard is a yard structure on the face of that wording. One single-pole shade umbrella is the one yard item the paragraph allows, in the rear yard or on a rear patio. A hoop fixed to the garage is a different question the paragraph does not reach, and that would be an exterior change needing the committee's approval. A paved sport court is separately out, since tennis courts are prohibited and paving needs approval.
One sign is allowed and the size is capped. 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, or a sign of reasonable size used by builders during construction and sales. The home occupation paragraph separately requires that no sign or display indicate from outside that the house is used for anything other than a dwelling. The declarant kept the right to put up whatever signs it wanted to promote and sell lots, regardless of these standards.
There is no general rule about cars in the driveway, but there are two limits worth knowing. No homesite may be used for storage of lumber, firewood, motor vehicles, materials, junk, waste, debris or grass clippings - so a car kept on the lot as storage rather than in use is caught. And snowmobiles, recreational vehicles, motorcycles and dune buggies may not be parked outside a permitted structure for more than forty-eight hours. Driveways themselves are regulated: they need committee approval, may not be stone or cinder, have to match the width of the garage door with a ten foot minimum, and have to be concrete unless the committee approves another material in writing. The association clears snow from lot driveways.
A home occupation is allowed and the declaration defines it tightly. The use has to be conducted entirely inside the dwelling and carried on only by a member of the immediate family living there, and it has to be clearly incidental and secondary to using the house as a home without changing its character. Four conditions come with it: no sign or display showing from outside that the building is used for anything but a dwelling, nothing sold on the homesite, nobody employed except an immediate family member living there, and no mechanical or electrical equipment used. The declaration then names uses that can never count as a home occupation - a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, animal hospital, or any form of animal care or treatment business 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 →Trash is contained and the timing is specific. No homesite may be used as a dumping ground for rubbish, and trash, garbage and other waste may only be kept in sanitary containers. Incinerators and other equipment for storing or disposing of that material have to be kept clean and sanitary and kept indoors except for pickup, and a container may not go out earlier than twelve hours before the expected pickup time. The association is responsible for routine trash collection and removal unless the local authority handles it.
The declaration has a fires paragraph and it is more specific than most, but it never names a grill or a barbecue. It bars fires, burn pits and other types of incineration devices from operating or being placed on any street or roadway, within any homesite, or in any common area - and then expressly permits properly established, maintained and controlled campfire pits for social functions, as opposed to incineration or burning, including on the common areas. So the paragraph's target is burning and incineration rather than social or cooking fire, and a contained cooking grill is nowhere addressed either way. Given how broadly the first half is written, this is one to raise with the board rather than assume.
The declaration does not use the word clothesline, but it reaches the practice directly: no regular or repeated hanging of laundry, rugs or other items outside a dwelling on any homesite is permitted. The wording catches repeated outdoor drying whether or not there is a line involved. It says nothing about a one-off, and nothing about drying inside a garage or on an enclosed porch.
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.