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

2, and locks in the state's drowning-prevention mandate at Section 115922(a) as an amendment to the city's Building Code. The trigger is a building permit: whenever the Building Official issues a permit for a new pool or spa, or for remodeling an existing pool or spa, at a private single-family home, the pool or spa must carry the enclosure described at item (1) plus at least one more feature from the additional drowning-prevention options the state statute lists at Section 115922(a). The enclosure itself must meet Health and Safety Code Section 115923 and must isolate the pool or spa from the residence.

Where a wall of the house or an accessory structure is used to complete that isolation, any door opening in that wall must carry the door protection required under Section 115922(a)(4) or (5), and the code specifically bars using that same door-protection device to also satisfy the second, independently required drowning-prevention feature. Compliance is checked at permit issuance and again during the Building Official's field inspections before final approval; a pool that lacks the required isolation enclosure or the second feature will not clear final inspection.

08 rather than left as a freestanding backyard-fence rule, it travels with every building permit application the Building Division processes for pool work, not just with a separate fence permit.