What the recorded documents actually say about Wild Wing Plantation in Granger — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
7 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 recorded Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions for Wild Wing Plantation, recorded in St. Joseph County on October 4, 2001 as Instrument No. 0149546, read together with every recorded amendment to it. Two amendments change what the declaration says: one recorded in April 2006 as Instrument No. 0615188, and one recorded in December 2009 as Instrument No. 0940019, which rewrote the satellite dish and antenna rule and is the reason the antenna answer on this page does not match the 2001 text. The declaration covers all 34 homesites, numbered 1 through 34, together with the common areas, so it governs the whole neighborhood rather than one section or phase. No separate section or phase declaration exists for this subdivision.
One thing to watch: a 2005 version of the declaration circulates with this neighborhood's paperwork and has been handed out with recent listings. It was never signed, dated or recorded, its signature and notary blocks are blank, and it is not the governing document. Its restrictions read the same as the recorded 2001 text on the points covered here, so it is unlikely to mislead on substance, but the recorded declaration is what binds.
What is not covered: the association's by-laws set meeting and voting procedure rather than use restrictions, and any rules and regulations the board has adopted since are not part of the recorded record and are not reflected here. No dues figure appears in any recorded document. Confirm the current assessment, any board-adopted rules, and the association's present position on renting and on recreational vehicles with the association and your title company before you rely on them.
Perimeter fencing of any kind is barred unless the Declarant approves it in advance, or the Association decides a fence is needed. That bar is written broadly: it names hedges and other growing fences, chain link and split rail alongside any other kind. A separate addendum, recorded with the declaration and restated in the 2006 amendment, requires owners to use underground electric fencing to keep pets in unless the Declarant permits a more secure form, and says fencing may never extend past the rear corners of the house toward the front property line. Privacy fencing is allowed around a swimming pool but has to stay confined to the immediate pool area, unless extending it is practical for keeping pets in.
Outbuildings are barred outright. The declaration lists tool sheds and storage sheds by name, along with trailers, tents, shacks, barns and any other outbuilding of any type or nature, and says none may be used on a homesite at any time, temporarily or permanently. There is no approval route written into this paragraph, unlike the fence and pool rules.
This paragraph both bans and permits, and a buyer should read the whole of it. It opens by saying recreational vehicles of any kind other than four wheel personal vans may not be stored on the property. It then says campers, trailers, boats, trucks, commercial vans, motorcycles, motorbikes, mobile homes and ATVs may not be kept in open areas, on or off the homesite. It closes by naming a permitted place: any such vehicle must be stored in a garage or removed from the property. The document never defines what an open area is, and the opening sentence and the closing sentence pull in different directions, so a camper kept inside a closed garage sits in genuinely unsettled ground here rather than plainly banned. Every home in this neighborhood is required to have an attached garage for two to three cars. If you are buying with a camper or a boat, get the association's current position in writing before you close.
In-ground pools are possible, above ground pools are not. The declaration bars tennis courts and above ground pools, and says any other swimming pool may be built only after prior written approval from the Architectural Control Committee. The recorded addendum adds that privacy fencing around a pool must stay confined to the immediate pool area, and that pool equipment such as pumps, ladders, slides, umbrellas, cabanas and water toys has to be kept inside the fenced area and out of sight from any road.
Approval is required before work starts, and the committee's discretion is broad. No building or structure may be erected, placed, maintained or altered, and the natural topography or drainage may not be altered, until construction plans and the landscaping plan have been approved by the Architectural Control Committee. Plans must show the floor plan, quality of construction, materials, outside colors, harmony of external design with existing structures, and location against lot lines and grade. Two complete sets go in and approval comes in writing. The declaration says the committee's decision is final and entirely within its discretion, and that nothing may be built that does not fully match the approved plans.
This rule was rewritten by a later recorded amendment, so the original paragraph in the 2001 declaration is out of date and should not be relied on. Under the December 2009 amendment, a satellite dish no larger than 2 feet across, and an antenna for AM or FM radio, may be attached to the home, but only with prior approval from the Architectural Committee. Above ground television and short wave radio antennas stay barred. The committee weighs visibility from any roadway, visibility from neighbouring lots, and whether there is another place on the house to mount it. Where a clear signal path needs it, the amendment allows the dish to go on a post in the back yard, limited to eye level height and screened with landscaping at that level. The older 2001 wording allowed a 2 foot dish with no approval step as long as it was not visible from a roadway; the approval requirement is the change.
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 controlled from the start and stays controlled. The landscaping plan for each homesite has to be prepared or approved by a landscape designer designated by the Declarant, and the committee approves it alongside the building plans. Every homesite must have an irrigation system built to the Declarant's specifications by a designated contractor. Yards front, side and rear must be planted with grass seed, sod, hydroseed or ground cover within thirty days of the home being finished or occupied, whichever comes first, unless weather or the growing season prevents it. The recorded addendum also sets green belt areas across the rear 12 feet of every lot and a 6 foot strip along the side lot lines running 50 feet forward from the rear property line, and says no member may remove or plant trees or vegetation in those strips without permission, even though the owner still holds title to that ground.
Mailboxes are uniform across the neighborhood. The mailbox, the post and the colors of each have to be approved in advance of installation by the Architectural Control Committee, and the declaration says all mailboxes and posts will be the same design and colour, with no individual designs or colours permitted.
Ordinary household pets are contemplated; farm animals are not. Dogs, cats and 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. Animals, livestock and poultry may not be raised, bred or kept. The recorded addendum adds a containment rule that matters day to day: owners are required to use underground electric fencing to keep pets in, unless the Declarant gives permission for another, more secure form of fencing.
Renting out a home here needs the association's permission and cannot be done on a long lease. No lease of any dwelling may be entered into without the prior approval of the Association, and no lease may run longer than one year. The declaration does not say what the association may weigh in deciding, does not set a cap on how many homes may be rented at once, and does not describe a renewal process, so ask the board how approval works now before you count on rental income.
Basketball goals are allowed but tightly specified, including a winter storage rule that surprises people. A goal must be on a single mobile post made expressly for basketball and placed next to the driveway turnaround. Goals and backboards may not be installed on or attached to the garage or the house. Backboards may not exceed standard regulation size and must be a clear material such as plexiglass, plastic or tempered glass. Every basketball goal has to be stored in the homeowner's garage from November 15 to March 15.
Yard signs are limited to one, and it has to be small. No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a homesite except a single sign of no more than five square feet advertising the property for sale or rent. The Declarant kept a separate right to put up signs of any size while building and selling. The declaration does not carve out political, contractor, security or holiday signs, so anything beyond the one sale or rent sign is outside what is written here.
Parking is shaped by three separate rules. Driveway surfaces are specified: stone and cinder driveways and parking areas are barred, driveways must be at least twelve feet wide and built of concrete at least four inches thick, and a circular drive in front may be at least ten feet wide. Every home must have a full-size attached garage holding at least two but not more than three cars. And the vehicle paragraph bars keeping recreational and commercial vehicles, trucks, commercial vans, motorcycles and similar vehicles in open areas, saying such vehicles must be stored in a garage or removed from the property. The declaration does not set a number for ordinary passenger cars in the driveway or say anything about on-street parking.
A home occupation is permitted, but the definition is narrow enough that most businesses will not fit. The work has to be carried on entirely inside the home and solely by a member of the immediate family living there, and must stay clearly incidental and secondary to living in the home. There may be no sign or display visible from outside, no commodity sold on the homesite, no employee who is not an immediate family member living there, and no mechanical or electrical equipment used. The declaration then rules out specific trades by name, including a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, animal hospital, and any form of animal care or treatment such as dog trimming.
The documents never use the words short-term rental and never name a nightly or weekly platform, so read this as the general leasing rule applied to a short stay. Every lease of a dwelling needs the prior approval of the Association, and no lease may run longer than one year. The one year figure is a ceiling on length, not a floor: nothing recorded here sets a minimum stay. So a short-term let is not separately banned, but it is a lease, and the approval requirement reaches it on the face of the wording. Ask the board directly how it treats short stays before buying on that basis.
This declaration does reach repair work, which is unusual for the area. It bars parking inoperative vehicles, vehicles in disrepair, and vehicles which are being restored in the open areas, and says any such vehicle must be stored in a garage or removed from the property. So the work itself is not forbidden, but a project car cannot sit out in the open where it can be seen. There is nothing written about routine maintenance such as an oil change or a brake job on a running, licensed car.
Trash has to be contained, and equipment has to live in the garage. No homesite may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish, and trash, garbage and other waste may not be kept except in sanitary containers. Incinerators and other equipment for storing or disposing of waste must be kept clean and sanitary and, the declaration says, in the homeowner's garage only. Nothing recorded here sets a collection day or says when containers may go to the curb.
No covenant here names a grill, so this answer comes from the fires paragraph, and that paragraph is written broadly. It says no fire may be permitted to burn upon any street, roadway, homesite or other open area once construction is complete. Because it bars fire on a homesite without limiting itself to open burning or to burning waste and leaves, a charcoal fire is caught by the words as written. A gas grill may well be a different question, since there is a reasonable argument it is not a fire burning upon the homesite in the sense meant, but the document does not answer that either way. If outdoor cooking matters to you, get the association's current practice in writing rather than relying on how neighbours behave.
Outdoor drying is barred, in the same paragraph that bars outbuildings. The declaration says no hanging of laundry, rugs or other items outside the dwelling is permitted. It does not describe a clothesline as such, and it offers no screened or rear-yard exception, so the bar reads as covering any outdoor hanging of laundry. The same sentence also requires committee approval for awnings.
Flag display is allowed in a narrow window and free standing flagpoles are not allowed at all. Flagpoles are barred on any lot or common area. A national or ethnic flag may be displayed if it is attached to the house, and only to celebrate a holiday, and it must come down within three days of the end of that holiday. No flag may exceed 3 feet by 5 feet. Any other kind of flag is barred from public display unless the Declarant gives permission. Rules restricting flag display can interact with state and federal law, so confirm how the association enforces this one today.
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.