Haverhill, MA Swimming Pools & Spas: Fencing & Safety Requirements (2026)

Adopted in 1972 as Chapter 225, Article II, Fencing, § 225-3 states plainly that no swimming pool may be maintained, constructed or installed unless it has a fence at least four feet in height completely enclosing the pool. The requirement applies to any pool covered by the chapter, meaning any public, semipublic or private pool, whether above ground or in-ground, the same scope set out in § 225-1's permit-approval provision. Section 225-4 then addresses the one opening the fence is allowed to have: entranceways are permitted, provided they are constructed so that, when closed or secured, they are as effective a barrier as the surrounding fence itself.

In practice, that means a pool gate must latch or lock, not simply swing shut, if it is to meet the same four-foot barrier standard as the fence around it. Article II sits immediately after the electrical standards in Article I of Chapter 225, and the chapter's general references also point to Chapter 141, Electrical, and Chapter 255, Zoning, since a fenced pool enclosure in Haverhill still has to satisfy whatever setback and lot-coverage limits apply in the property's zoning district. Because §§ 225-3 and 225-4 predate the City's 2007 electrical amendments and have not been revised since their 1972 adoption, they remain the entire text of the City's pool-fencing requirement: a four-foot minimum height and a self-securing gate, with no additional detail on gate self-closing mechanisms, non-climbable mesh, or alarm requirements beyond what these two sections state.