Supervisors Reinstate Pool Fence Law

Supervisors plugged an embarrassing loophole in the county’s lawbook by adopting an emergency ordinance Tuesday requiring that fences be built around swimming pools.

Thomas B. Mathews, county planning director, said a year ago that the board inadvertently killed the requirement that each new swimming pool have a 5-foot high fence with 4-inch vertical slats during a major “house cleaning” of unneeded ordinances.

“They did this en masse, and the ordinance for the fences somehow was included,” Mathews said.

The effort to put the law back in place was headed for readoption, but that would have required a second reading at an Oct. 24 meeting. Supervisor Todd Spitzer suggested the ordinance be adopted immediately as an emergency provision to avoid any delay.

“Why wait three weeks on a safety issue?” Spitzer said, directing the county counsel to amend the ordinance.

The emergency measure passed unanimously.

Although more than 890 swimming pool permits were issued in the last fiscal year and a half, Mathews said no swimming pools were built without the fencing because inspectors had no idea the ordinance had been deleted.

The omission was discovered a week ago by a planning supervisor during a routine review.

State building codes also require a 5-foot-high fence around a swimming pool with the same vertical gap and a self-latching or lockable gate.