Palm Beach Gardens, FL Swimming Pools & Spas: Fencing & Safety Requirements (2026)

Palm Beach Gardens folded its old, freestanding pool-barrier ordinance into the locally amended Florida Building Code rather than keeping separate text in the Code of Ordinances. An editor's note to Chapter 86 confirms that Ordinance No. 31, 2008, § 5, adopted December 4, 2008, repealed the former Articles III through V, §§ 86-56 through 86-253, which had covered structures used as models and swimming pools as stand-alone city sections; those repealed numbers, including former §§ 86-222 and 86-223 for pool barriers and gates, still appear as Class IV entries on the citation Schedule 'A' even though the substantive text now lives elsewhere.

Under § 86-27, the city adopts local amendments to the Florida Building Code's administration chapter, and Section 110.3's required-inspection list for 'A. Building' work includes item 7, Swimming pool inspection, which the city's own inspection checklist walks through step by step: an excavation and rebar inspection before the concrete shell is poured, underground electric and piping pressure tests, a deck inspection, a final electric inspection before the pool is filled, and a final permanent barrier inspection prior to filling the swimming pool with water. The same item states that to pass final inspection and receive a certificate of completion, a residential pool must meet the requirements relating to pool safety features as described in Section 424.2.17 of the Florida Building Code, and the last check confirms all required enclosure requirements are in place before the building official signs off. In practice, no final inspection, no certificate of completion, and no filled pool, until the barrier is built and passes.