Duck Creek Crossing

Deed of Dedication and Restrictive Covenants

DEED OF DEDICATION

We, the undersigned, Larry E. Estridge and Ernesta Diane Estridge, husband and wife, owners of the real estate shown and described herein, do hereby certify that we have laid off, platted and subdivided, and do hereby lay off, plat and subdivide said real estate in accordance with the within plat.

This subdivision shall be known and designated as “Duck Creek Crossing”,  a commercial subdivision, designed to be developed as a replica of an early 19th Century Shopping Area within a Midwestern Frontier Town, circa 1837-1865.

All driveways, walkways, and parking areas as platted are hereby deemed private drives, walkways, and parking areas to be by the platters of said real estate deeded to the Duck Creek Crossing Association for the exclusive use of such Association, and to be maintained and operated by said Association for the use of patrons of said lots so platted after formation of such Association as hereinafter mentioned in the Covenants.  The driveways, walkways, and parking areas shall also be used for the purpose of easements for water, gas , and electricity, and to establish surface drainage and the Duck Creek Crossing Association shall take their title subject to such easements.

RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS

1. All lots shall be used for commercial retail purposes and historical purposes such as museums and other uses incidental thereot as permitted by the Franklin County Unified Zoning Ordinance.  Commercial retail use is to include the manufacture of articles to be sold only on the premises such as pottery, art works, glassware, and other products which can be manufactured in limited space, but not for industrial production of such items.  No structure shall be used as a dwelling at any time, either temporary or permanently.

2. Nuisances.  No noxious or offensive activity shall be carried on upon any lot nor shall anything be done thereon which may be or may become an annoyance or nuisance to the remaining commercial lots.  No animals, livestock, or poultry of any kind shall be raised, bred, or kept on any lot except as permitted to establish the historical context of such structure, with approval of the Historical-Architectural Committee.

3. Temporary Structures.   No structure shall be established or maintained in any manner except as a complete and finished structure meeting all of the requirements of these restrictions.  No structure of a temporary character shall be used for any purpose.  The use of modified mobile homes, trailers, basements, tents, shacks, garages, barns, or other outbuildings not being the main structure approved under these covenants are hereby expressly prohibited.

4. Garbage, Refuse Disposal, and Maintenance of Lots.  The owner of each lot shall be liable for and hereby assumes and agrees to maintain his property free of any paper, trash, weeds, unsightly growth, or other debris.  Trash, garbage, and other waste shall be kept only in sanitary containers hidden from view.  No incineration of any material or incinerators of any type are to be allowed on any lot.  Lots are to be kept neat and grass and lawn cover shall not exceed eight inches in height.

5. Private Water or Septic Tank Systems.  Each lot is to be served from the common well as shown on the plat, which shall be owned and operated and maintained by the Duck Creek Crossing Association as hereinafter mentioned.  The use of private wells on lots is hereby expressly prohibited.  The owners of each lot shall have the right to use the easement for the water lines over the drives, walkways, and parking areas, in common with others using such water line under rules established by the Duck Creek Crossing Association.  Each owner of a lot shall be responsible for any septic tank system necessary to the purpose of such lot and before construction will obtain and exhibit results of percolation tests showing sufficiency of the septic system proposed for the use to be made for same in compliance with the rules of any local Plan Commission, Health Authority, or Indiana State Board of Health as the same may apply.  In the event a public water system or public sewer system becomes available, then each lot will be required to convert thereto if they are using such service within six months after installation of such public water and/or sewer system and further use of private systems will not be permitted thereafter.  No outside privies are to be used as such on any lot at any time.

6. Fences, Hedge, and Lot Improvement.  No fence, wall, hedge, or shrub planting which obstructs sight lines at elevations more than two feet above the contour of each lot shall be placed or permitted to remain on any lot unless approved by the Duck Creek Association, The Duck Creek Association shall have the right to place hedges, fences, or shrub planting along the South, East and West boundaries of the platted area to limit view of the adjoining premises if such Association so desires, and the lot owners of said lots bordering said boundaries may place such hedges, fences or shrub plantings to limit such view along such boundary provided approval is obtained from the Duck Creek Crossing Association.  This prohibition is to be construed to prevent obstruction to vision throughout the entire platted area.

7. Signs.  Signs are to be of a non-Neon, non-electrical, and non-modern type and all signs must be approved by the Historical-Architectural Committee, and advertising only on the premises activities.  Specifically prohibited are those signs advertising other goods and services such as signs advertising soft drinks etc. of a commercial type.

8. Parking.  The within plat shows an area designated as “Parking” and another area showing “Owners’ and Employees’ Parking.”  Parking on individual lots either by customers or owners-employees is hereby prohibited, and no driveways therefore constructed.  Ninety degree (90?) parking only will be permitted in each parking lot and no vehicle over 20 feet in length nor campers will be permitted.  The Duck Creek Crossing Association shall make reasonable requirements concerning parking in the parking lots.

9. Architectural Control.  No building, structure, or other outbuilding, shall be erected, placed, altered or remodeled on any lot until the construction plans and specifications showing the location of the structure, roofing material, siding material, and exterior detail have been approved by the Duck Creek Crossing Association Historical-Architectural Committee and are in compliance with the Franklin County Unified Planning and Zoning Ordinance.  The plans and specifications must show that the materials to be used for a ll exterior work are those materials used in the period 1837-1865 common to the Midwest. No aluminum siding, false brick, plastic material, or cement block shall be used to form the exterior of any building, but any material such as the above may be used in the interior of such building as long as same is not exposed to exterior view.

10. Historical-Architectural Committee Guidelines.  It is expressly understood and agreed by all owners or occupiers of the lots herein platted and their successors in title that at all times construction of structures on said lots will reflect in the exterior of said structures, as accurately as possible, the architectural style circa 1837-1865, during which period the common structures were general stores, drug stores, hotels, churches, blacksmith shops, taverns, newspaper offices, houses, and liveries; lawyers and doctors. The styles were usually one or one-and-one-half story log, frame, clapboard, log and frame combined, stone or brick.  The Historical-Architectural Committee will use as guidelines for its determination authoritative works available for the architectural styles during the period 1837-1865, such as but not limited to, the Franklin Country Historical Atlas 1882; Indiana Houses of Nineteenth Century by Wilbur Peat; and Log Architecture of Ohio by Donald Hutslor. Care in exterior detail should be taken to prohibit exhaust fans for air conditioners, exhaust fans for cooking facilities and other extrusions to buildings indicating a more modern use, which uses, if any there be, shall be screened or otherwise hidden from exterior view.

11. Historical-Architectural Control Committee Formation and Membership.  The Historical-Architectural Control Committee shall be composed of the Trustees or Board of Directors of Duck Creek Crossing Association and in addition thereto a member to be appointed by the Area Plan Commission of Franklin County, Indiana, which member appointed thereto may be a member of such Area Plant Commission or a person designated by it. At any meeting of such Trustees or Board of Directors and in addition the member appointed by the Area Plan Commission, a majority of such members shall constitute a quorum.  The members of the Committee shall not be entitled to any compensation for meeting pursuant to this covenant.

12. Historical-Architectural Committee Procedure.  Any lot owner desiring to erect, place, alter, or remodel any structure shall present to the Historical-Architectural Control Committee and to the Area Plan Commission Member on said Committee a proposed set of plans and specifications as specified in Restrictive Covenant 9 above, including any proposed signs on said lot or on such structure.  The Committee shall meet and approve or disapprove such plans within 30 days after submission.

In the event that the Committee approves of such plans and specifications, the lot owner must present same to the Area Plan Commission for approval.  If the Committee disapproves of such plan, such disapproval shall be submitted in writing to the lot owner and to the Area Plan Commission, and such structure shall not be built unless the action of the Committee is shown to be arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable in a court of Law.  The burden to show compliance with the Historical-Architectural guidelines is placed upon the owner so seeking authority to construct any structure.

13. Duck Creek Crossing Association.  There is hereby created by this instrument a Duck Creek Crossing Association. Each owner of a lot or part of a lot shall be automatically a member in such Association and shall be entitled to full membership rights therein according to bylaws to be established by such Duck Creek Crossing Association. The Association can make assessments against the lot owners or each owner of a portion of a lot on an equitable basis to insure the maintenance of all driveways, parking areas, walkways, and easements and to improve same from time to tome.  The assessment to be made on each landowner may by such Duck Creek Crossing Association be enforced against the non-paying lot owner by action in the appropriate Court of Law.  Reference in these restrictive covenants and this deed of dedication to Duck Creek Crossing Association Board of Directors or Duck Creek Crossing Association Trustees or both shall be the governing body of the Duck Creek Crossing Association, whether it be in fact incorporated or whether it exists as an unincorporated Association.  The number of Trustees or Board of Directors shall be no less than three (3) at any time.

The above and foregoing restrictive covenants are to run with the land and shall be binding upon all parties and all persons claiming under them until January 1, 2000, at which time said restrictive covenants shall be automatically extended for successive periods of ten (10) years unless changed by vote of majority of the then owners of the lots covered by these restrictive covenants in whole or in part.  Invalidation of any one of the foregoing by judgment, or Court Order, shall in no way affect the other restrictive covenants which shall remain in full force and effect.

Conveyance of all lots in this Addition will be by lot numbers with reference to the Plat.  Title to each lot shall be subject to the restrictions set forth in the above Restrictive Covenants and become a part of the consideration for conveyance of title.

The right to enforce these provisions by injunction, together with the right to cause the removal, by due process of law, of any structure or part thereof erected, or maintained in violation hereof, is hereby dedicated to the public, and reserved to the several owners of the several lots in this subdivision and to their heirs and assigns.

Witness our Hands and Seals this 7th day of August, 1973.

//Signed// Larry E. Estridge  and Ernesta Diane Estridge

Approved by Area Plan Commission of Franklin County on August 8, 1973.

Approved by Board of County Commissioners of Franlin County, Indiana, on August 20, 1973

Plat Received for Record- Record B, Page 8-11, #8192, County Recorder August 27, 1973.