Turf and putting greens in Lake Arrowhead.

The covenants on the association’s documents page, the July 2019 version, set up a committee of two elected members and one representative named by the developer, a seat that passes to another elected member once the developer’s last lot sells. No structure may be built on or moved onto a lot until it approves, and it reads three kinds of plans: new homes; outbuildings, garages, barns, carports “or similar structures”; and corrals or other animal enclosures. It judges them on floor area, Weld County building-code compliance, exterior finish and, for corrals, sturdy construction.

A turf lawn, a putting green, a chipping area or a planting plan is not on that list, and the documents page posts no separate architectural or landscape guidelines. The phrase “or similar structures” is what can pull part of a backyard project in: a pergola over a seating area, or a storage shed for clubs and flags. It depends on what you build; ask the Architectural Control Committee, which takes plans at any time and owes a decision within seven calendar days.

The association describes bridle paths winding through the neighborhood, and the covenants reserve them as easements on the recorded plat. No building, outbuilding or fence may stand over an easement, nothing may be stored on one, and the association polices each for trash and mows its vegetation to 3 to 6 inches at least once a year. It also keeps up structures in them, such as a foot bridge over an irrigation ditch.

So the easement line is the working edge of a backyard design here. The covenants say nothing either way about a turf surface crossing it, and the association’s yearly mowing assumes vegetation there: get the committee’s answer in writing before turf or edging goes past that line.

Fencing along an easement, once the house is built, has its own spec: wood or steel pipe, five feet tall, posts on eight-foot centers, at least two rails, no barbed wire, running the easement’s full length on the lot. A rail fence like that leaves wide gaps, so a dog area on turf needs an enclosure of its own inside it.

The association says each home sits on one acre or more. The statewide parcel file counts 163 residential parcels across the four filings, with a median of about 1.2 acres; 133 of them reach an acre. A lot may not be subdivided, one residence goes on each site, and a lot may keep up to four horses, cattle or animals of similar size.

The covenants’ setbacks: no building or accessory structure within 40 feet of the front lot line or 20 feet of a side street, no dwelling or attached garage within 20 feet of an interior side line, and no structure within 10 feet of the rear line. On a corner lot the narrow side is the front. The front and rear distances reach any structure, a pergola or shed included. Whether a flat turf surface counts as a structure the covenants don’t say, so ask the committee if a green or its border will sit close to a line.

Two general provisions reach the work itself. Building material may sit on a lot past 30 days only while a dwelling or other improvements are under construction, which covers a pile of base rock during the job but not after it. And no lot or easement may be used to dump trash, grass clippings or branches, though an owner may keep a compost pile for that lot.

Lake Arrowhead Water Association, on the state’s business registry since 1990, is a different body from the homeowners association registered in 2002. It owns the 34.9-acre lake parcel in the northeast quarter of Section 27 and a 1.9-acre tract in the First Filing. The state’s water-rights record lists the reservoir on Ashcroft Draw with a 1963 appropriation and a 1996 adjudication date, decreed for irrigation, recreation, fishery, fire and wildlife uses, 200 acre-feet of it absolute.

Its rules sheet, dated April 22, 2026, keeps the water to members in good standing, in daylight, with electric trolling motors only, and says there are no taps available for new water association members. The homeowners association’s own site describes the subdivision as built around a man-made lake with access to the water association’s irrigation. Read together, access depends on the lot: ask the water association whether yours holds a membership before planning irrigation around a new green or planting bed. Evans’s neighborhood map lists no city or HOA non-potable system for Arrowhead.

Next door, Evans lists Arrowhead Open Space at the southwest corner of 37th Street and 47th Avenue, planned with a walking trail and a scenic overlook of Arrowhead Reservoir.

The association calls Lake Arrowhead a Greeley community and gives a Greeley 80634 address, but the land is unincorporated Weld County, and Evans’s own neighborhood map files Arrowhead under Weld County jurisdiction. A city’s landscape code ends at its limits, so the turf rules written by Greeley and by Evans do not govern a yard here.

The county has no turf rule of its own: searching the Weld County code on Municode for artificial turf turns up nothing. On August 24, 2026 the county repealed and re-enacted its zoning chapter with amendments, and that text was not yet in the online code a month later, so check with Weld County Planning Services before a larger build.

The county’s permit bulletin lists work that needs no building permit: fences other than pool barriers, retaining walls up to four feet from footing to top, patios no more than 30 inches above grade, and one-story sheds or playhouses up to 200 square feet, which must still meet setbacks. Plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits can apply even to exempt work; ask the Building Inspection Division.