What the recorded documents actually say about Willow Creek Villas in Mishawaka — fences, sheds, pools, pets, parking and the rest — with the part of the document each answer comes from.
8 homes have sold here in the last four years, which is why this neighborhood was compiled early.
Before you rely on this page
What these answers cover. They are read from a single recorded instrument, the Protective Restrictions, Covenants, Limitations and Easements for Willow Creek Villas, recorded in St. Joseph County, Indiana on December 3, 2009 as Instrument No. 0939524. It runs 11 pages, and the last page is the recorded Willow Creek Villas Final P.U.D. plat sheet, which carries its own numbered notes; several answers here use those notes. The covenants say they cover the 21 lots of this subdivision, and the plat sheet numbers them Lots 1 through 21, on 5.81 acres in Penn Township, City of Mishawaka.
Two oddities on the recorded paper, so you are not surprised by them. The cover page and the attached plat sheet both read Willow Creek Villas, while the inner title page and the body of the covenants call the subdivision Willow Creek; it is one recording, and it is the one filed with this neighborhood's own listings. Separately, two paragraphs point at the wrong committee: the fuel storage tank paragraph sends approval to the Gumwood Crossing Architectural Control Committee, and the tree cutting paragraph refers to the NHACC, where every other paragraph names the Willow Creek Architectural Control Committee. Those read as leftovers from the form the developer started from, and they are on the recorded page.
What is not covered. No amendment to this instrument is on file here, and nothing on file is newer than it, but the covenants allow amendment by the owners of at least seventy-five percent of the lots, so one could have been recorded since without reaching these files. The covenants also ran to October 15, 2019 and renew in ten-year periods unless the owners vote to change them. This subdivision was carved out of an earlier development, and the plat sheet says its easements supersede the easements shown within Lots 30 through 34 of The Estates East at Barrington P.U.D.; if any part of a lot here is also subject to that earlier declaration, that is a separate recording and it is not in these files. The association by-laws, any rules the board has adopted, and the architectural committee design criteria for mailboxes and fences are all referred to by this document but are not part of it. Before you rely on any single answer here, ask the association for the current documents, and pull the chain of title from the St. Joseph County Recorder or your title company.
Perimeter fencing is not allowed. Privacy fencing is allowed around an immediate patio or pool, no more than six feet high, and it must conform to the architectural standards set by the style of the home built on the lot and be approved in writing by the Willow Creek Architectural Control Committee. The same paragraph lets the committee approve a written variance from the fence requirement, so a fence outside those limits is a question to put to the committee rather than a flat no. Separately, on a corner lot nothing that obstructs sight lines between two and six feet above the roadway may stand in the triangle formed by the two street lines and a line joining them twenty-five feet from the intersection, and the same sight-line limit applies within ten feet of where a driveway meets a street line.
Detached storage buildings and detached pet shelters are not permitted. The covenants bar the construction and placement of any detached storage or pet shelter structure used to store lawn tools, toys, swimming pool apparatus or any other personal property, or to shelter pets, and that paragraph carries no size limit, no screening option and no approval route. A separate paragraph also bars moving on, assembling or building any barn, shack, tent, outbuilding or structure of a temporary character to be used as a residence. A garden shed in the back yard is the kind of structure the first of those paragraphs describes. The covenants require every dwelling to have an attached garage sized for two to three cars, which is where this document assumes storage happens.
Campers, trailers, trucks and boats may not be kept in open areas in this subdivision, and the clause reaches those open areas whether they are on the owner lot or off it. The document never defines what an open area is, and it never mentions a garage either way, so what the rule does about a camper or a boat kept inside a closed garage is not answered on the face of the paper. Two related limits do apply: every dwelling must have an attached garage sized for at least two cars and no more than three, and no vehicle may sit on the grass or the landscaped part of a lot at any time, nor be parked on a right-of-way on a regular, recurrent or permanent basis. If you plan to keep a camper, a boat or a work truck at the house, get the association position in writing before you buy.
Above ground pools are not permitted. An inground pool is permitted with the prior approval of the Willow Creek Architectural Control Committee, and the same paragraph treats a tennis court the same way. If you want to fence it, the fencing paragraph allows privacy fencing around an immediate pool or patio up to six feet with written committee approval. One thing to plan around: the covenants do not permit a detached structure for storing swimming pool apparatus, so pump and chemical storage has to go somewhere other than a separate shed.
Anything built, placed or altered on the outside needs written approval first. No building or other structure may be erected, constructed, placed, maintained or altered, and the natural topography or drainage of a lot may not be altered, until the Willow Creek Architectural Control Committee has approved the construction plans. Two complete sets of plans go in, one is kept and one comes back, and they have to show the floor plan, quality of construction, materials, the outside colors, how the external design sits with the existing houses, and the location relative to lot lines, topography and finish grade elevations. Approval or disapproval comes in writing, and the paragraph says the decision is entirely within the committee discretion. The committee has three members. The covenants also fix some materials directly: the front of a dwelling in brick, wood, stone, or vinyl siding combined with a brick, wood or stone front, front walks of brick or cement, and fiberglass type roof shingles. The document says the committee authority expires twenty years after the plat is recorded, and that the developer would hand appointments over to the homeowners association, so ask the association who sits on the committee now.
This document prohibits outside antennas and satellite dishes. No outside above-ground television, AM, FM or short wave radio antenna of any type, including any type of satellite dish antenna, may be erected or maintained on any lot or structure in the subdivision. It is written as a flat prohibition, with no size exception and no approval route in it. The same paragraph requires all public utility service, including cable television, to run underground and stay out of sight. Antenna and dish restrictions are an area where outside law has moved since this was recorded in 2009, so confirm the current position with the association, and with your installer, before you mount anything and before you rely on the ban.
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 →The yards have to be planted, and the committee controls tree cutting. Within one hundred and twenty days after the house is completed or occupied, whichever comes first, the side, front and rear yards must be planted with grass seed, sod or ground cover unless the Willow Creek Architectural Control Committee approves something else. Tree removal is restricted twice over: no live tree of any size within ten feet of the lot perimeter may be cut without prior committee approval, and no live tree more than four inches in diameter measured twelve inches above the ground, no tree generally known as a flowering tree such as dogwood or redbud, no broad leaf evergreen and no live vegetation on a slope steeper than twenty percent may be cut without prior approval. Where the plat marks a non-access easement as protective screening, the lot owner keeps those plantings up at their own expense, and no screen planting over thirty-six inches high is allowed between the building setback line and the front lot line on any lot. Altering the topography or the drainage of a lot also needs committee approval. Note that this document puts the planting and the upkeep on the lot owner, not on the association.
Each lot has to have a mailbox that conforms to the design criteria set by the Architectural Control Committee, and it has to be kept in good condition and repair at all times. The document does not print the design itself, so ask the association for the current specification before you replace a post or a box.
Dogs, cats and other household pets are allowed. 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 other animals, livestock or poultry of any kind may be raised, bred or kept on a lot. This document sets no limit on the number of pets, and no weight or breed limit. One thing to plan for: a separate paragraph does not permit detached pet shelter structures, so a standalone doghouse or kennel building is caught by that ban. An animal hospital, or any form of animal care treatment such as dog trimming, is also named as something that cannot be run as a home occupation.
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 →No sign of any kind may be displayed to public view on a lot without prior written approval, and the paragraph names for sale and for rent signs specifically, along with a builder sign of any dimension during the construction and sales period. As written, that approval comes from the developer, and the developer also reserved the right to put up its own signs to promote and effect the sale of lots and structures. Because this was recorded in 2009 and the developer role was set up to pass to the homeowners association, ask the association who grants sign approval today before you put a sign in the yard.
Every dwelling must have a full-size attached garage that holds at least two cars and no more than three. No vehicle may be parked on the grass or the landscaped portion of a lot at any time, and no vehicle may be parked on any right-of-way on a regular, recurrent or permanent basis. The recorded plat sheet counts two spaces per home in garages and two more per home in driveways, eighty-four spaces in all across the twenty-one lots, against a requirement of two per unit. Driveways have their own rules: no stone or cinder, brick or concrete only, at least twelve feet wide, and at least four inches thick if concrete, with a circular drive in front of a house allowed down to eight feet wide. The plat also shows the homes reached by a private ingress and egress easement running through the lots rather than by a public street, so where a guest may leave a car overnight is worth raising with the association.
A home occupation is allowed inside the house, on tight conditions. The use has to be conducted entirely within the residence dwelling, participated in solely by a member of the immediate family living there, and clearly incidental and secondary to using the dwelling as a dwelling, without changing its character. Four conditions come with it: nothing visible from the outside may indicate the building is used for anything other than a dwelling, no commodity may be sold on the premises, no person may be employed other than an immediate family member living there, and no mechanical or electrical equipment may be used. The paragraph then names uses that are out regardless: a barber shop, styling salon, beauty parlor, tea room, fortune-telling parlor, animal hospital, or any form of animal care treatment such as dog trimming. The no-employees condition and the no-mechanical-or-electrical-equipment condition are strict as written, so a business that needs either is worth clearing with the association first. The sign paragraph separately bars any sign displayed to public view without prior written approval.
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, garbage and other waste have to be kept in sanitary containers, and no lot may be used or maintained as a dumping ground for rubbish. Incinerators and any other equipment for storing or disposing of that material have to be kept in a clean sanitary condition. The document does not say where containers go between pickups, and it sets no screening requirement for them. Separately, the association is given power to enforce the restrictions about accumulations of rubbish, weeds or trash.
The covenants never mention a grill, a barbecue or cooking outdoors. What they have is a one-sentence fires paragraph, and its reach is streets and roadways: no fire may be permitted to burn on any street or roadway in the subdivision. On the face of that wording, a grill on a patio or in a back yard is not what the paragraph is aimed at, because it does not address fires on a lot at all. A fire pit is a closer question, and outdoor burning is usually a matter of local rules as well, so check with the association and the city before you build one.
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.