Does my Architectural Committee approval expire?

**On the Association side, no.** Once an Architectural Committee approval has been issued for a given project, it does not expire and it is not revoked. If your plans were approved five years ago and you are only now ready to build, that approval still stands.

**Three things still bite, so do not read this as "no deadlines."**

**1. Your Township and County permits do expire.** Zoning permits and County building permits carry their own sunsets, and those are enforced by the Township and the County, not by the Association. An unexpired Association approval will not help you if your zoning permit has lapsed. Check with the **Freeman Township Zoning Administrator** and the County before you start work on an older approval.

**2. The covenants give you one year to finish the exterior.** Once construction begins, the exterior must be completed within one year of the start of construction. That clock runs from when you break ground, not from when you were approved.

**3. The approval covers the project that was approved.** If your plans have changed — different footprint, different location on the lot, different materials, an added structure — that is a change requiring approval, and the covenants require plans to be submitted and approved **in writing** before work is commenced. Reusing an old approval for a different building is not what it covers.

**Practical advice.** Before starting on an approval that has been sitting a while, do two things: confirm with the office that the Committee's file still matches what you intend to build, and get your Township and County permitting current. Both are quick, and both are much cheaper than discovering the problem after the foundation is in.

*Source: Restrictive Covenants, Article VI, Section 1, and Article VII, Section 2; Architectural Building Regulations (2025); Freeman Township Zoning Ordinance No. 8, Article XIV; Board and Architectural Committee position on approval duration.*