Supervisors Reversing Strict Pool Safety Rule

The Orange County Board of Supervisors took the first step Tuesday toward rescinding one of the strictest home swimming pool safety regulations in the state.

The board had voted in January to change county building rules to require that safety fencing be installed around swimming pools of every home sold in unincorporated areas, even pools built decades ago.

That change came in response to a 2001 grand jury report that said the county should adopt strict regulations to prevent drownings, the county’s leading cause of accidental death in children 4 and younger.

In a county with more than 100,000 swimming pools, the requirements had significant implications. Under the rule, anyone wishing to sell a home with a pool in an unincorporated area would be required to install fencing around it, at a cost that often reaches thousands of dollars.

The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to begin rescinding that rule, noting questions about whether the changes were allowable under state law. Board Chairman Tom Wilson said he now believes that any such changes should be approved by state lawmakers and applied statewide.

“What we had approved is just not enforceable,” he said.

The board acted after listening to concerns from safety advocates, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, which supported the strict rule, and pool and real estate groups, which opposed it.

At issue was whether the county properly justified a regulation tougher than those in force statewide. The statewide regulations, for example, are less strict on older pools.The board is scheduled to take a second and final vote on the issue at its first meeting next month.

Pool safety activists said the decision disappointed them.

“We’re talking about lives here,” said Capt. Stephen Miller, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority. “No matter how much education we do, we’re going to keep losing children.”