Kirkwood, MO Swimming Pools & Spas: Fencing & Safety Requirements (2026)

Section 5-38(e), the final subsection of Kirkwood's general fence-provisions article, tells pool owners only that a swimming pool must be enclosed by a barrier in accordance with the City's Property Maintenance Code, meaning the specific gate, height and self-latching requirements come from the 2021 International Property Maintenance Code that § 5-22 adopts, as modified, rather than from a locally drafted pool-fence table inside Chapter 5's fence article itself. A backyard pool barrier still has to clear the Building Commissioner's § 5-36 fence permit process like any other fence: the owner files an application listing height, type and construction materials plus a site plan tying the barrier to the property line, house and street.

Because a pool barrier counts as a fence for the rest of Chapter 5's article, it is also bound by the article's material bans, so a pool enclosure cannot be built of paper, cloth, canvas, bamboo, chicken-coop wire, barbed wire, or carry an electric current under § 5-38(a) through (c), and if it sits in front of the front building line on a residential lot it is capped at 48 inches under § 5-39(c) unless the Board of Adjustment has granted a variance under § 5-45.