Other Code Requirements Impacting our Facility
In addition to ADA requirements we also fall under Montgomery county building and health codes. There are a number of these codes which impact our facility, and we have highlighted some of the most important of these below:
1) Bathroom Fixtures – There is a complex calculation for the number of bathroom fixtures required in a bath house for a pool such as ours. These calculations are based on the amount of water in the pool and there is a different calculation for deep vs. shallow water. Our Architect Dave Almy (who has been involved in numerous Montgomery county pools) has done the calculation for our pool. He has calculated that we are short both in the numbers required for our current pool and a remodeled or expanded pool. At a minimum we are short at least two water closets and one shower in the women’s room (more if we bring the pool up to code) and one shower and no water closets in the men’s bath room.
NOTE: Any changes we make in the bath house will require us to be up to current code, and should prepare us for any changes we are considering for the pool.
2) Pool Diving Well – Our current diving well does not meet Montgomery County, the State of Maryland, or USA Swimming standards for a diving well. We have continued to be grandfathered in on use of our existing well. However, any replacement of the pool would require us to either meet diving well standards or eliminate diving from our facility.
NOTE: This year we purchased a new diving board for our pool. Because of the size of our well no company would install a modern diving board, and we only got them to install a board in the older design after some discussion on the depth of the well.
3) Proximity of Middle and Main Pool – Our two pools are two close to meet current standards. The current code would require these pools to be 10 feet apart. This is grandfathered in for our current pool. However, it will need to be fixed when and if we replace the pool(s).
4) Drainage – We currently drain overflow water into the creek. This is also not in the current code, and any changes to our pool will require us to drain into the sewage system.
5) Distance of Pool from Residential Property – Any of our pools need to be at least 75 feet from the property line of our residential neighbors. This is not a problem with any of our current pools which are approximately 90 feet from the property line. However, one of our proposed design alternatives has been to include a separate lap pool on the back hill. The location of this lap pool has been significantly constrained by the need to meet the 75 foot requirement.
