Turf and putting greens in Fox Hill.

The Longmont Fox Hill Homeowners’ Association says owners must get board approval, on its External Modification Request form, before any exterior modification including a structure, major landscaping or fencing visible from the street. Section 2.12 of the 2015 covenants goes further for fences: no owner may install, modify or alter border bushes, a fence or fencing material without the board’s prior written approval, and the board signs off on the design, location and material of every fence. Sections 5.0 and 5.1 add walls, outbuildings and storage buildings to the work that needs written approval before it starts.

Two gaps matter for a backyard green. The street test says nothing about the yard behind the house, and on a course lot the people looking in are golfers, not drivers. And the upkeep standard in Section 2.12, lawns mowed and adequate watering, was written for grass without saying how it applies to a synthetic lawn. It depends on how the board reads both, so ask the Fox Hill board before a backyard green or a turf lawn goes in, and read the HOA turf approval guide before the request is written.

The board put a Second Amended and Restated Declaration, a complete rewrite, to a member vote at the annual meeting on September 26, 2026. It passes only if at least 51% of the homeowners holding the association’s total votes approve it, and it takes effect once recorded. Section 6.1 would require committee approval before landscaping, fences, walls, exterior lighting, swimming pools or any other improvement goes in on a lot, whether or not the street can see it. Under Section 6.6 the committee answers in writing within 60 days, and no action by then counts as approval.

The committee could ask for a plan showing materials, color, location and grading. Approved work would begin within one year and wrap up within one year of starting, and the owner reports completion within five days and lets the committee inspect. The board’s summary says the rewrite brings the landscaping rules in line with Colorado’s water-wise landscaping laws, and Section 5.8 keeps each lot in good condition “whether xeriscaped or with turf” without saying whether turf means grass or synthetic. The draft also drops the golf-course clause of 2015 and leaves fences to the association’s Rules and Regulations. Which declaration covers your yard turns on the vote count and the recording, so ask the board before you submit.

Boulder County’s parcel map puts 22 of Filing I’s 97 lots, 12 in Filing II and 18 in Filing III against the club’s course parcel. In Filing I, Section 2.12 has those lots keep border bushes and fences off course property and not unreasonably blocking open sight lines. In Filing II, the 1976 covenants bar any fence within 25 feet of the property line adjoining the golf course, have that line planted to pfitzers every 10 feet, and require landscaping that would interfere with the course’s operation to be removed on demand. Filing III’s 90 lots carry a separate 1979 declaration that isn’t posted online, so get a copy before drawing anything near the course.

That open edge is the design brief. Nothing in Filing II’s text keeps turf out of the 25-foot strip where no fence may stand, so a green there is framed by the pfitzer row and low beds instead of a rail. What counts as interfering with the course isn’t defined, though, so talk to the Filings II and III HOA board and the club before building right at the line. The club’s own practice area is the benchmark next door: a chipping green with a bunker beside it and a 7,600-square-foot putting green, on greens of creeping bent grass and poa annua, with water in play on 9 of its 18 holes.

Boulder County’s parcel map puts Filing I’s median lot near 15,600 square feet, with 59 of the 97 at 15,000 or more. Filings II and III are tighter and more even, with a median near 11,400 across their 185 lots. Filing I’s covenants set no yard setbacks of their own. Filing II’s Section 7 keeps every building, structure or other improvement, walls, fences, uncovered terraces and steps excepted, 25 feet from a street lot line, 5 feet from one side line and 10 from the other, and 20 feet from the rear.

In Filing II, that rear setback shapes a design-led backyard more than the turf does. A pergola, shade structure or outdoor kitchen beside a green stays 20 feet in from the back line. A green lies flat, and whether it counts as an improvement or sits with the uncovered terraces the section exempts isn’t written down; since no committee rules on it there, raise it with the Filings II and III HOA board and the neighbors behind you before building near the line. On a Filing I corner lot, hedges and shrubs around a front lawn can’t block sight lines between two and six feet above the road inside the 25-foot corner triangle.

The External Modification Request form, updated May 6, 2024, asks who will do the work and for drawings, diagrams, color samples, pictures or links; for a green that means a plan to scale, turf and edging samples and any lighting. The board decides as soon as possible, with no fixed deadline, and a project finished more than 6 months after approval has to be submitted again. The form also says board approval is not City of Longmont building or planning approval.

A new fence on a shared property line, to enclose a green or a dog run, adds the Good Neighbor Fence Approval Form, signed by each neighbor directly affected. Under that policy, effective May 17, 2017, a wood boundary fence’s finished side faces the neighbor, or the street where it faces one, and the covenants tie fence height and material to Longmont’s ordinance. Lighting a green for evening putting runs into Section 3.2, which bars light that is unreasonably bright or causes unreasonable glare. Work done without approval is a covenant violation: the enforcement policy posted in 2025 starts with a warning letter and up to 10 days to cure, then fines of $200 and $300, capped at $500 per violation.