Pontiac, MI Swimming Pools & Spas: Pool Permits (2026)

City Code Section 86-255, Private swimming pools, fencing; locks, sits in Chapter 86, Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions, Article VII, Offenses Against Public Safety. It defines a swimming pool broadly as 'any manmade body of water at least one foot in depth used or intended to be used for wading or swimming and not supervised by the city authorities,' sweeping in above-ground pools and larger kiddie pools, not just in-ground pools. Subsection (b) places the enclosure duty on 'every person in possession of land within the city either as an owner, purchaser under contract, lessee, tenant or licensee' on which a pool sits: that person must maintain, at all times, a fence or other solid structure not less than four feet high completely enclosing the pool or the premises containing it, with no opening other than doors or gates larger than six inches square.

Every gate or door through the enclosure must stay securely closed when not in actual use and must carry a self-closing, self-latching device capable of keeping it closed. Separately, the Zoning Ordinance's accessory-structure standards in Section 4.101(D)(1) place swimming pools and other recreational equipment in the rear or side yard, with the exception that a pool on a corner lot abutting an interior lot along its side street must meet the same setback required for a principal building in that side street yard. Together the two provisions mean a Pontiac homeowner must both site the pool in a permitted yard and enclose it to the four-foot fencing standard before it can be used.