Protective Covenants

[BlueRidgeHomeOwner]

What is the name of your state? NC

Several years ago we bought property and built our home in a small wooded mountain community that is covered by restrictions (we have no HOA). One of the reasons we liked this community was its focus on maintaining the wooded nature and encouraging homeowners to maintain this.

Recently the lot below us (we live on a mountain) has had buyer interest. The buyer is asking for significant changes to the set backs as well as several other changes to the covenants. They would like to build their own home plus a guest cottage and a 600 sq foot workshop (the husband is a finishing carpenter) with the workshop directly across from us. We feel that this goes against the objectives of the covenants as stated as will lower our property value due to their building close to the road and clearing significant woods because they are having trouble fitting everything in the space. Because we are at the end of the subdivision and the seller owns 4 properties (out of 10 total) already we are concerned that our neighbors may sign a change (requires 2/3 approval) as they are far enough away that they wouldn't have to deal with it and it likely wouldn't affect them other than a lot of construction traffic.

The other thing I should mention is we have a short-term vacation rental apartment (on our lower level) that would be greatly affected by all this, even after the construction is completed, which would likely take several years. These type of rental is allowed per our covenants.

While I understand if we get outvoted, if it comes to that, they could approve the requested changes, do the objective of the convents hold any legal standing? They state the following:

1. To ensure the best use and most appropriate continued development of the properties within the Subdivision.
2. To protect the property owners against any action that could depreciate the value of the property within the Subdivision.
3. To guard against poorly designed and proportioned structures and structures build with improper or unsuitable materials.
4. To preserve the aesthetic value and appearance of the Subdivision.
5. To encourage and secure the construction of attractive homes on the lots, to ensure appropriate home locations on the lots and to secure and maintain proper setbacks from the streets and adequate free space between structures.

We didn't realize this could be a possibility when we purchased the property but the seller is willing to divide another property to help facilitate this. The irony here is that they were the ones who drew up the covenants and are now quite willing to change them to their advantage. We have offered to purchase the property so they wouldn't lose the income just to try to protect our investment but am not sure what agreement they may have with the buyer.

Do we have any options? We really do not want take legal action or threaten it but we have an awful lot to lose from this.