Bothell, WA Swimming Pools & Spas: Fencing & Safety Requirements (2026)

BMC 8.28.010, in the chapter titled Conditions Dangerous to Children, applies to all outdoor swimming pools heretofore or hereafter constructed or presently under construction. That wording covers existing pools as well as new ones, so a pool built decades ago is held to the same fence rule as one under permit today.

The enclosure must be a fence of sufficient strength and design to resist the penetration of children and difficult to climb. The minimum height is not less than five feet. The code prints no separate height for gates; the five foot figure is stated for the fence.

A residence or other outbuilding on the premises can be part of the fence, so a house wall or a garage wall facing the pool can serve as a section of the barrier. Any doors or gates in the fence, other than doors in buildings, must be of the self-closing and self-latching type, with the opening device operable only from the inside. Doors in buildings that form part of the enclosure are carved out of the self-closing and self-latching requirement, while every gate in the fence line is covered.

The section ends by declaring that any person violating it is guilty of a misdemeanor. Because 8.28.010 does not prescribe its own punishment, BMC 1.24.010(A) supplies the general rule that a misdemeanor under the city's ordinances is punished by a fine not to exceed $1,000, imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both. BMC 1.24.020 treats each day on which a violation is committed, continued or permitted as a separate offense, and BMC 1.24.010(B) preserves the city's administrative and civil remedies. The next section in the chapter, 8.28.020, separately makes it a misdemeanor to abandon an unlatched refrigerator or similar enclosure of one and one-half cubic feet or more where children can reach it.