Cathedral City, CA Swimming Pools & Spas: Fencing & Safety Requirements (2026)

Section 9.80.080 of the Cathedral City zoning title covers swimming pool enclosures for R1 zone properties. The enclosure can be made of buildings, fences or walls, and each must be not less than five feet in height at any point. Height is measured immediately adjacent to the building, fence or wall on the side opposite the swimming pool, so grade changes on the pool side do not shorten the barrier. The fence or wall must have self-latching gates or doors not less than five feet in height, and each gate or door must have latches not less than four feet above the ground level.

Timing matters. The section requires all fencing and walls to be in place and approved by the building inspector before water is allowed in a pool.

Two other parts of the Cathedral City code sit alongside that rule. Section 9.80.070(B)(2) sets the minimum side and rear yard setback for swimming pools at five feet and bars pools from a required front yard. Pool pump and filter installations need a ten-foot setback from any property line, and the city planner can reduce it when a solid five-foot high masonry wall stands between the equipment and the adjacent property line and extends two feet beyond the equipment.

Section 8.04.020 amends the Building Code in Cathedral City so that, under Section 115922, drowning prevention feature number (1) is required plus one of the other remaining six features. Where a wall of a Group R, Division 3 occupancy, including an attached garage, serves as part of the enclosure, numbers (4) or (5) are required. Private pools and spas inside the fenced, gated and patrolled boundaries of a country club or similar gated residential development are excepted from the barrier requirement when they comply with Section 115922(a). Section 13.80.120 separately makes an abandoned, unattended, unfiltered or polluted pool a public nuisance.