Midtown Terrace:
Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions
As explained in the article below from the Summer 2012 MTHOA newsletter, Midtown Terrace is a development governed by a set of conditions, covenants, and restrictions ("CC&Rs") recorded in the original deeds to our lots and in the general land records of the City and County of San Francisco. The following links will access unofficial copies of the CC&Rs and the by-laws of the Midtown Terrace Home Owners Association established pursuant to those CC&Rs.
MTHOA by-laws as most recently amended (September 1965)
CC&Rs: Supporting Midtown Terrace as a High Quality Neighborhood For Over 60 Years
When Midtown Terrace was developed in the mid- 1950s, the developers recorded in the property records of San Francisco a number of conditions, covenants, and restrictions (“CC&Rs”) intended to assure that the purchasers of these lots could have confidence that Midtown Terrace would retain its character as a high quality residential neighborhood. Some of these rules were specifically included in the individual property deeds issued to the original purchasers (such as a prohibition against any fences on the steeply sloping parts of rear yards). Other rules were set out in a general document covering Midtown Terrace as a whole. The general restriction document requires that all purchasers (both original and subsequent) will be members of the home owners association and subject to its by-laws, including any amendments. The by-laws, as most recently amended in 1965, set out a number of rules designed to protect our neighborhood and establish an Architectural Committee to monitor compliance with those rules. At the present time, the MTHOA Architectural Committee consists of the full membership of the home owners association board.
The by-laws require that all front-yard landscaping (including the sidewalk area) must be maintained “in good and husband-like manner” and authorize the association to remedy violations at the expense of the lot owner. All exterior building alterations, additions or extensions of fences, walls, and other permanent structural changes have to be submitted to the Architectural Committee for its approval as to “conformity and harmony of design and as not interfering with the reasonable enjoyment of any other lot.”
The existence of a set of covenants, conditions, and restrictions with a home owners association charged with monitoring them is an important protection to assure that our neighborhood continues to have the qualities which influenced our decision to make this area our home.