St. Clair County, IL Swimming Pools & Spas: Pool Permits (2026)

St. Clair County adopted the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, 2012 edition, as the Swimming Pool and Spa Code of St. Clair County, governing construction, alteration, movement, renovation, replacement, repair and maintenance of aquatic vessels countywide. Before building, enlarging, altering, repairing or moving a pool or spa, or installing any regulated mechanical, electrical or plumbing system tied to it, the owner or an authorized agent must file an application with the code official and obtain a permit (Sec. 7-9-33). The application has to include the required fee and a general description and location of the proposed work (Sec. 7-9-34), plus two or more sets of construction documents, drawn to scale, showing the work conforms to the code (Sec. 7-9-35).

An application goes stale 180 days after filing unless the owner has pursued it in good faith or already holds the permit; the code official can grant extensions of up to 180 days on written request with justifiable cause (Sec. 7-9-36). Once issued, a permit itself expires if work is not started within 180 days, or if it is suspended or abandoned for 180 days after starting, though the same 180-day extension is available for a fee of half the original permit cost (Sec. 7-9-37(C)-(D)). Starting work before the permit is issued triggers an additional fee on top of the regular permit fee and the county's adopted fee schedule (Sec. 7-9-38). The code official can revoke a permit outright over a false statement or misrepresentation in the application (Sec. 7-9-37(E)). Existing pools and their electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems can keep operating without a new permit as long as they were lawfully installed and are maintained to the design standard they were built under (Sec. 7-9-8, 7-9-9).