Turf and putting greens in Rinn Valley Ranch.

Neither the Design Guidelines (Revision 7.2, updated December 10, 2024) nor the Declaration mentions artificial turf, synthetic grass or putting greens. What the guidelines do say is blunt. Section 3.19.1 reads: “The Design Committee requires complete landscaping plans for any changes for landscaping to front or back yards. No landscaping shall commence until plans are approved by the Design Committee.”

The Declaration’s list of Improvements takes in grading and changes to the drainage pattern, sprinkler systems, patios, tennis courts, sod, gravel and bark, and Section 6.4 says none may be built or altered without the committee’s written approval. The exemptions in Section 4.1.3 are small ones, such as planting to an approved plan or adding plants that stay under 24 inches; every other landscaping or site change goes in for review. Colorado’s rule on backyard turf follows this section, and the HOA approval guide walks through putting a request together.

Section 3.19.6 requires live vegetative cover on 70% of the front yard, measured without the house, the driveway and the drainage ditch, and gravel or mulch counts only once plants, shrubs and trees are set into it. Synthetic grass isn’t live cover on any plain reading, so a patch of it in front would come out of the remaining 30% along with bare rock, which has to stay in brown, gray or Colorado sandstone tones. It depends on how the committee measures your frontage; ask the DRC before a design puts turf in front of the house.

The ditch along the street is its own case. Section 3.19.4 makes each owner keep it clear so water can flow and allows only native vegetation, turf or 4- to 6-inch cobble in it. The guidelines don’t say whether that “turf” means sod alone, so settle it with the committee before anything synthetic goes in the ditch.

Section 4.1.1 says the committee responds within 30 days and that when only landscaping is involved, only plans and the fee are required. The guidelines don’t print the fee, so ask the DRC. Requests go in through the HOA’s PayHOA portal. Under Section 4.1.2 a complete request with no disapproval inside 30 days is deemed approved, and Declaration Section 6.8 says a request for more information inside that window keeps it from being deemed approved. At the August 19, 2025 board meeting the committee reported a typical 3-business-day turnaround on requests, landscaping among them.

The DRC’s own page says no construction should begin until the Town of Frederick’s approvals and permits are also in hand, and a plan that changes after approval must be resubmitted. Frederick’s 2026 code, in force since June 1, allows artificial turf only in areas its functional-turf definition covers, a list that includes the putting green of a golf course. Whether a green behind an existing home here counts is a reading the Town makes, so put the question to Frederick’s Planning Department while the committee reviews the plan.

Section 4.3 wants the work finished within 8 months of starting, with written notice of completion so the committee can inspect it. The August 2025 minutes call projects built without approval covenant violations, and the HOA’s fine schedule charges $25 a month for one, starting 30 days after the first notice.

The guidelines want landscaping placed so the existing topography is disturbed as little as possible, with ground falling away from the house at least 1 foot in 10. Every lot has to take the runoff from lots uphill and send it to the street gutter or the back of the lot, and Declaration Section 11.3 bars interfering with the developer’s drainage pattern unless the committee approves it in writing. The mounds and tiers that give a green its break are grading, which the Declaration counts as an Improvement, so draw them on the plan along with the path the water takes around them.

A tiered green that needs a retaining wall meets Section 3.12: 4 feet at most, in brick, stone, stucco or treated wood, and a wall within 2 feet of a shared lot line needs the neighbor’s approval. The Declaration also warns that parts of the community may sit on potentially expansive soils, which is why every home here needs a soils report and an engineered foundation. A turf base on that ground deserves the same caution; the clay soil guide explains what changes underneath.

The statewide parcel file counts 148 residential parcels across Rinn Valley Ranch’s two filings, 70 lots in the first and 78 annexed in 2003. The median parcel is about 0.55 acre, the middle half fall between 0.50 and 0.66 acre, and the largest reach about 1.1 acres, so a green can sit well clear of the house and its drainage paths.

The guidelines spell out the look they want. Section 3.19.1 discourages any plan that draws a rigid property boundary and encourages yards that blend into one another through similar plants and random clumps of trees along lot lines, and Section 3.20, which sets no mandatory architectural style, encourages exterior courtyards and semi-enclosed patios. Patios of brick, stone or concrete may go anywhere at or below grade once the landscape requirements are met. For a green, that points toward edges finished in planting and stone, opening off a courtyard, rather than a hard outline at the property line.

Evening play needs its own approval: beyond approved porch lights, exterior lighting requires the committee’s written approval, and it may allow subdued light whose source can’t be seen from nearby homes.

The HOA has to maintain and repair the ditches on its plat, the Rink Lateral, the Rural Ditch and the Godding Ditch Lateral among them. Yet Declaration Section 14.11 says water in or flowing through any ditch lateral here is not owned by the Association, and the Declaration gives no owner any right to it. The Declaration hands no lot a ditch supply for its lawn.

Going by the map, tap water here comes from Left Hand Water District: the neighborhood lies west of I-25, and the Town says its residents west of I-25 are Left Hand customers, so the Town’s own shortage stages don’t reach these lots; Left Hand has declared its own Stage 1 (Mild) shortage and asks for voluntary cuts. The guidelines also point owners to Colorado WaterWise’s xeriscape guidance.

One ditch rule matters on install day. The HOA’s minutes have reminded owners that motorized vehicles may not travel along the ditch behind the homes on Cottonwood Circle and Homestead, so plan equipment access through your own lot.