Having looked at houses over the years I've seen some really bad CC&R's. But some go beyond being annoying to being downright harmful to the planet. Take for example this except from the Shamrock West website pointing out the most commonly violated CC&R's:

SECTION 9 – LIGHT POLE
“Each home is REQUIRED to have a photo-sensitive pole light installed in the front yard within (10) feet of the property line, designed to switch on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise with a minimum bulb power of 40 watts.”

So not only does this contribute to unnecessary light pollution, but it wastes energy. Living in the next neighborhood over we don't have this silly rule. And the neighborhood is much nicer for it. Sadly most new development CC&R's I've looked at lately have these same clauses requiring residents to waste energy.