However, I noticed a lot of covenant communities with strict laws about where you could park your car, what you could do with your front lawn, what color you could paint your house, etc.
All it takes is one "fiercely independent" individual to park his car on blocks on his front lawn to scare everyone else into signing a restrictive covenant.
Yeah
If only I could afford to live in the country
“The rep on Colorado was that the people were fiercely independent.”
Sure, 40 years ago they were.