IRVINE : Swim Pool Safety Plan to Be Heard

Builders of new swimming pools and hot tubs in the city could be required to install barriers or alarms between the home and the water under proposed rules that will go before a public hearing later this month.

The City Council will hold a hearing April 28 to consider a proposed law endorsed last week by the Planning Commission. The commission asked the council to adopt the law to help prevent swimming pool drowning deaths.

The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission cites drowning as the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1 to 4. Although no young children have drowned in Irvine pools in at least the past 16 years, there have been some close calls, said Robert Storchheim, Irvine’s manager of building, safety and engineering department.

Under Irvine’s proposed ordinance, anyone building a new pool or hot tub would have to install a separate fence around the pool with self-latching gates, or install two layers of barriers and alarms between the home and the water’s edge.

The first layer of protection would be required on all doors leading out to the swimming pool or hot tub. The doors would be required to close and latch automatically, or an alarm would have to sound if the door were opened without first activating a switch at least five feet off the floor.

The second layer of protection would be required at the water’s edge. The pool owner would have the choice of installing either a motorized pool cover or some type of alarm that would sound if a child entered the pool.

The city’s current law requires only that a back-yard gate leading into a pool area from outside the home close and latch automatically, Storchheim said.

The additional safety devices being proposed will modestly increase the cost of pool construction, Storchheim acknowledged. But they should help prevent accidental drownings by keeping toddlers from slipping out of the home unnoticed, he said.

If passed, the law as written would not apply to the city’s estimated 8,000 existing swimming pools. Planning Commissioners Richard J. Salter and Kate Clark wanted to make the measure retroactive, but the three other commissioners voted against their proposal.

Marcia Kerr, a Los Angeles spokeswoman for the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, said “the city of Irvine should be commended for realizing that the layered barriers are important.”

If the City Council adopts the new pool standards, she said, Irvine will become a model for other cities considering stricter pool laws.