Turf and putting greens in RainDance.

Before artificial turf goes in anywhere in RainDance, the Architectural Review Committee has to approve it. The guidelines then draw three lines: no turf in a front yard or in a side yard that faces a street, no more than 30% of the rear yard in turf, and screening so that what is installed can’t be seen from the street or from any common-area tract. On a corner lot the street-side yard drops out entirely, and on a lot that backs onto a tract the rear edge becomes part of the design.

Screening takes more thought here than the word suggests. RainDance’s orientation packet says its fences are meant to stay open and minimal to keep long-range views, and the guidelines require three-rail fencing on corner lots and on lots facing a street, park, open space or farm lot. Behind an open rail the screen has to be planted: shrubs and ornamental grasses set between the turf and the view, drawn on the plan along with the turf itself.

The March 2019 version is the only one posted publicly, and it predates the Colorado backyard rule printed below. Current documents come through the resident login or by email request to the managing agent. It depends which version the committee applies now, so ask the ARC in writing whether the 30% figure still holds for your lot before the layout is fixed.

The guidelines name putting greens in their Play Equipment entry, in a list that also holds fort-style play structures, swing sets, climbing equipment and sport courts. A green needs approval before installation, belongs in the back yard and sits at least 6 feet from any property line. Where the play area falls, and how close the neighbors are, can bring a demand for more landscape screening or a larger setback.

Nothing in the guidelines says whether a green’s surface counts toward the 30% turf limit, because the two entries never mention each other. It depends how the ARC reads them together, so send one request that covers both: the application has separate boxes for Rear Landscaping and Play Equipment, and every landscaping submission needs a diagram with a plot plan. Show the green, its 6-foot margin, any lawn-style turf and the planted edge on one sheet, each with its square footage.

The setback shapes the design. A green held 6 feet inside the fence line floats in planting instead of running wall to wall, and that planted margin is where the screening gets built.

At least 50% of a lot’s unimproved area, not counting the house, walks and driveway, has to be plant material, and the guidelines’ examples are irrigated turf, shrubs and trees; artificial turf sits on the other side of that ledger. Each rear yard needs at least 1 tree that isn’t a street tree, 5 shrubs, 3 ornamental grasses and 5 perennials. Shrub beds take a roll-top steel edger or a masonry edge, flower beds and garden boxes stay 5 feet off property lines, and every landscape area is watered by an underground automatic system tied to the Water Valley raw-water tap.

The outdoor room has entries of its own. Fireplaces and fire pits burn gas only, stay in the rear yard and 5 feet from property lines, and one taller than 6 feet keeps 10 feet from any fence. Water features stay out of the front, top out at 4 feet and recirculate. A hot tub sits at ground level, built into a deck or patio; patios need approval, in materials matched to the house; walkway lights aim down and stand no more than 24 inches tall. On a walkout lot the retaining-wall entry comes into play: a wall over 36 inches needs an engineer’s certificate and must be brick, dry-stack stone or finished concrete, never railroad ties or CMU block.

For a design cue, RainDance supplies its own. Owner-built fences are stained a Sherwin-Williams color named RainDance Red, and the metro district’s orchard map puts cherry, apple, pear and plum plantings along the community’s streets.

Lawns and beds in RainDance run on raw water, not the Town’s. The metro districts, organized under a Service Plan the Town of Windsor approved, divert it from the Cache la Poudre River through the Eaton and Whitney Ditches, hold it in seven irrigation lakes, filter it to 300 microns and pipe it to a meter on each lot, with the season running from about mid-April to mid-October. The district’s owner guide puts that meter pit in the back yard, with the hand valve and the blow-out port inside it.

The district asks for the meter pit and the curb stop to stay exposed, clear of landscaping, rock, mulch, bird baths, decks and patios, and it can bill an owner for damage to either. A turf or putting-green plan works around the lid: find it before the layout is drawn, keep it visible and reachable, and bring the turf edge up to it rather than over it.

Turf trims only one line of the bill. Water used is charged at $4.53 per 1,000 gallons, but the $277.68 capital fee is charged per unit when the season opens, so a smaller irrigated area lowers the usage charge and leaves the capital fee where it was.

The ARC’s 45 days start when it tells the owner in writing that it has the plans and anything else it asked for. By then it approves, approves with conditions or disapproves; if it does none of those, the request is deemed denied. Silence here is a no, so check on a request well before the last day rather than waiting it out.

Each submission carries a $25 fee and goes to the association through Advance HOA Management in Windsor, and the metro district’s homeowner portal takes architectural requests as well. Approved work has to start within 3 months or the approval lapses, and finish within 3 months of starting unless the committee sets another schedule. The buyer of a new home has 3 months from closing to finish the landscaping, which the committee can stretch for planting season to no more than 7 months if asked in writing first.

Delivery day has rules of its own. Gravel, rock, timbers, block and other bulk material must be installed or moved out of sight of the street within 7 days of arriving. No lot may have a gate onto open space, a street or common area, and the district’s perimeter fencing can’t be taken down, so base rock and turf rolls come in through the lot’s own gate. Grading can’t raise or lower the historical flow of water onto a neighbor’s lot.

RainDance National has two home neighborhoods of its own, Festival and Sugar Hills, built by American Legend Homes and Trumark Homes. Emerald Estates, a custom-homesite section inside RainDance, backs every homesite onto the course, makes every lot a walkout and lets buyers bring their own builder. Acadia at RainDance, close to the course, is laid out on one-acre homesites around a neighborhood park.

Emerald Estates homes go through that neighborhood’s own design guidelines, which its broker hands to buyers, builders and architects on request; they weren’t posted when checked on September 26, 2026. Nothing public says whether those lots also go to the RainDance Community Association’s ARC, or whether the 30% turf limit reaches them. It depends on documents that aren’t public, so ask both reviewers before a walkout terrace or a backyard green is designed.

The course sets a big benchmark. The club puts its G.O.A.T. Ranch practice green at 61,500 square feet, and RainDance’s community site says 65,000. The Funk Yard driving range, between holes 11, 13 and 14, aims golfers at antique vehicles, weathered farm equipment and cottonwood stumps, the same farm history the orchards carry.