Eagan, MN Swimming Pools & Spas: Pool Permits (2026)

Eagan City Code § 4.70 defines an outdoor swimming pool as any structure, basin, chamber or tank holding an artificial body of water for swimming, diving or recreational bathing at a single-family dwelling, once it exceeds 24 inches in depth at any point and covers more than 150 square feet of surface area. Every pool meeting that definition, whether already built or constructed afterward, must be completely enclosed by a security fence or wall between four and six feet high, set at least four feet back from the pool's edge, with the bottom of the fence or wall no higher than four inches above the ground.

Any opening or point of entry into the pool area needs a self-closing, self-latching, lockable gate, and the fence or wall itself must be of a nonclimbing type that gives toddlers no external handholds or footholds. Above-ground pools get a narrower exception: they do not need the perimeter fence if their sidewalls rise at least four feet, vertically or on an outward incline, and either carry their own self-closing, self-latching lockable gate or rely on a removable ladder, ramp or stairway that is taken away whenever the pool is not in use.

The section is explicit that its fencing rule sits on top of, not in place of, the rest of the City Code's building and land use requirements, so a pool project still has to satisfy Eagan's general construction permitting and zoning rules in addition to the enclosure standard.