Turf and putting greens in Spring Valley at Ute Creek.

The four firm ones: a realistic natural-green color with an ultraviolet coating against fading in full sun; professional installation, with the homeowner keeping it up from then on; densely packed blades that vary in shade the way live grass does; and a product suited to what it will be used for, because, in the section’s words, different types of artificial grass serve different functions. The fifth says the turf should be at least 1½ to 2 inches high.

That use clause is where a backyard putting green comes in. A putting surface is short, dense turf made for a ball to roll on, not the lawn-height product the height line pictures, and nothing in the guidelines says whether the committee reads the use clause as covering a green or holds a green to the 1½-inch line. It depends on how the ARC reads its own list, so put the question to the committee before a green’s surface is chosen.

Live grass is treated more lightly. The same section lets sod, a sprinkler system, mulch, rock and flowers go into a rear yard with no ARC approval at all; replacing that lawn with artificial turf is an application.

Ute Creek, a Robert Trent Jones II Group layout, has been open since 1997. The HOA’s own site says the neighborhood borders several holes on the back nine, the stretch where the course’s five lakes and two streams come into play most, and that the course keeps putting and chipping greens beside its driving range: a short drive for anyone who wants to feel a speed before choosing one for home.

Every lot, course-side or not, sits under the declaration’s golf ball easement. Golfers may come onto an unfenced yard to fetch an errant ball, but not into a fenced or walled one without the owner’s permission. Owners are told to expect maintenance from early morning into the evening, possibly treated-effluent watering and heavy fertilizing at times, and are barred from anything that distracts play. Turf on a course lot will collect balls, and where the developer put in split-rail fencing, Section 2.27 keeps it unless the ARC approves a change, so the yard behind it stays in view of the course.

Requests go on the association’s Design Review Request form, filed with Flagstaff Management in Longmont, with the landscaping plans enclosed. Section 2.13.3 lists what those plans show: fences, decks, sod and seeded areas, retaining walls, rock, the sprinkler plan, nursery sizes and species, a drainage and grading plan, and a timetable for starting and finishing. On a turf or putting-green job, that drawing is where the removed lawn, the changed sprinkler layout and the path water takes off the new surface all get shown.

The guidelines repeat the 30-day denial, then add a sentence on when deemed approval applies that the declaration doesn’t contain. It depends which text a disagreement turns on, so don’t read a quiet month either way: ask the ARC, through Flagstaff, where the request stands.

Approval starts clocks of its own. Under the declaration, work not begun within six months loses its approval unless the committee extends it, and approved work is due within six months of starting; Section 2.13.3 gives landscaping 365 days from plan approval, and the request form asks for completion within a year. Owners report completion within five days and let the committee inspect, and work that departs from the approved plan loses its approval. No review fee is posted; the declaration instead lets the committee ask for its actual review expense.

Boulder County’s parcel polygons put the 279 lots at about 5,300 to 16,100 square feet, with a median near 6,900 and 30 lots over 10,000. On lots that size, a turf panel or a green usually runs close to those edge easements, and the grade underneath is not the owner’s to reshape freely: the declaration has each owner keep the slope set at final grading and send any change to the lot’s established drainage to the committee as a plan.

The guidelines add their own drainage rules. Any change affecting drainage needs ARC approval, water must run away from the foundation and the driveway, and the ARC may ask for a drainage engineer’s report with a landscaping plan. A contoured green, a raised base or new edging along a side swale belongs on the grading plan for that reason. Buried lines matter too: the guidelines tell owners not to build improvements over utility easements without the utility’s consent.

Fences are built to the wing-fence or two- or three-rail specifications at 4 or 5 feet, six-foot fencing between homes has to taper down to split-rail height, chain link is out, and no fence of any kind goes in a front yard. An open patio needs approval and has to belong to the landscape plan without blocking drainage, while Section 2.42 asks for approval of paving in front yards only; it depends which section the ARC applies to a patio beside the turf, so include it on the same request.

Lighting carries the line most likely to catch a design-led backyard out. Fixtures must be conventional in style and follow Longmont’s dark-sky guidance, no lamp may put out more than a 100-watt incandescent bulb, low landscape lighting is to be used sparingly, and the guidelines call security floodlighting and LED lighting unacceptable. How that last line applies to low-voltage lights around a green or a path isn’t spelled out, so name every fixture on the request and ask the ARC.

A fire feature has to burn gas: new wood-burning pits and chimineas won’t be approved, while natural-gas or propane pits are when they meet the guidelines and the city’s building code. Beds around the turf can be xeriscape if they follow City of Longmont guidelines, combine at least four design elements and water trees and plants with hidden drip lines, and anything planted out back that will grow above the fence needs approval with its species named.