Inground pools in Chagrin Falls, Ohio

The village was laid out in 1837 and incorporated in 1844, and it still has the shape of an old mill town: a walkable downtown on the river, streets of older homes climbing away from it, and about 4,200 residents on roughly 2.1 square miles. Lots in the village proper tend to be narrow compared with the townships around it, and many have a grade change somewhere, whether toward the river, a side ravine or the street.

A Chagrin Falls address does not always mean the village. The 44022 and 44023 mail areas also take in neighboring communities, and the Chagrin Falls Exempted Village School District serves South Russell, Bentleyville and part of Moreland Hills as well. Each of those has its own zoning and building rules. This page covers the village itself. If your tax district on the county auditor's site is not Chagrin Falls Village, the rules below are not your rules, and we will look up the right ones.

We checked the USDA soil survey at points in and around the village. East of downtown the survey maps Loudonville soils, which formed in loamy till over sandstone or siltstone that sits roughly 20 to 40 inches down. Near the village center it maps Condit silty clay loam, which is poorly drained. The ravine walls are mapped as Cardinal-Mentor and Brecksville soils on 25 to 75 percent slopes.

Those are very different digs. Shallow rock can mean breaking or hauling stone to reach pool depth, and poorly drained clay means water in the hole. We would rather know which one we have before we quote, so a Chagrin Falls site visit often includes a hard look at nearby cuts and foundations.

Then there is winter. Chagrin Falls sits on the lake-effect side of Cuyahoga County. In cleveland.com's snowfall ranking for the 2017 to 2018 winter, the village logged 100.2 inches. Heavy snow sitting on a deck and coping, then melting and refreezing for months, is a strong argument for good base preparation under the concrete and for closing the pool properly every fall.

Chapter 1307 of the village code requires a permit from the Building Inspector before anyone installs, builds or even excavates for a permanent pool. The application needs a plot plan showing the pool in relation to lot lines and buildings, a list of materials, a description of how it will be built and the pool's dimensions. The permit is only issued once the plans meet the building and zoning codes and have been approved by the Architectural Board of Review. The village's building page says permits can take up to 10 business days to process after a complete submittal at Village Hall, 21 W. Washington Street.

The barrier rules are in Section 1148.05:

• Any pool that can hold more than 1.5 feet of water must be enclosed by a wall or fence at least 5 feet high.
• Horizontal rails go on the pool side, and vertical members can be no more than 4 inches apart. The bottom rail sits 4 inches or less off the ground.
• Gates into the pool area must be self-closing and self-latching, with the latch at least 5 feet above the ground. They must be lockable and kept locked when the pool is unattended.
• Fences in side and rear yards cannot exceed 6 feet, and every fence or wall needs its own building permit.

We could not find a pool-specific distance from lot lines in the village code, so we confirm yard and setback requirements for your lot with the village's Building and Zoning Department during the plan review.

Two chapters of the zoning code catch pool projects that the fence rules do not. The hillside protection chapter applies to land with an average slope of 12 percent or more, and to ground next to that slope within one times its height. A hillside permit comes before any building permit. The village can ask for a geotechnical report, and it requires a grading plan, a drainage plan prepared by a registered professional and a planting plan. Cut and fill slopes can be no steeper than two to one, and natural vegetation cannot be cleared more than 15 days before construction starts.

The riparian chapter keeps a 120 foot buffer from the normal low water mark of streams at least 10 feet wide, and of wetlands. Inside it the code allows passive recreation and limited removal of damaged or dangerous trees, and nothing like a pool. On a riverside or ravine lot, we work out where the buffer line falls before we draw anything.

On narrow lots, smaller fiberglass shells earn their place. The Enrichment 9x17 or Dignity 10x20 leaves room for the fence, a deck and a path around the water, and a one-piece shell with no liner seams handles long freeze-thaw winters well. Where the yard allows a little more, 11 to 12 foot wide models like the Victory 11x22 or Hero 12x26 fit many families. A spa or spillover spa adds a lot of use in April, October and the snowy months without taking much yard.

Access is the other village question. A fiberglass shell arrives on a truck and is lifted into place, so we check the street, overhead wires, trees and the path between houses before anyone commits to a model. When a shell cannot reach a yard, an ICF concrete or vinyl liner pool built on site can be the better answer.

Because the Architectural Board of Review looks at exterior work, we treat the fence, deck material and equipment location as part of the design and show them in the 3D model, not as details to settle later.

Our fiberglass packages start at $68,400 installed, with the Pentair equipment, LED lights and a 4 foot concrete deck included. In the village, the items that add to that number are fairly predictable: the 5 foot fence and gate, extra patio, any rock or water in the dig, hauling away spoils on a tight site and the electrical run from your panel to the equipment. We price them after walking the lot, and we can connect you with lenders if you plan to finance.

Time goes into the front end. Hillside review, board review and the permit itself each have to be done in order, so we like to start design in winter for a summer swim.

From Chagrin Falls we also build in Solon, Bainbridge, Twinsburg, Macedonia and Aurora, so if you are just outside the village line, we already know the neighboring offices.