Inground pools in Munroe Falls, Ohio

The city started as Kelsey's Mills in 1809, built around mills on the Cuyahoga. For most of the last century there was a dam here. Summit County removed it between August 2005 and October 2006 after the Ohio EPA found the pool behind it was starving the river of oxygen, and the river now runs free through town. Summit Metro Parks runs Munroe Falls Metro Park, with its swimming lake, and the Bike and Hike Trail passes through the city's Brust Park. Kids here go to Stow-Munroe Falls schools.

The river left its mark underground. When we sampled the USDA soil survey across town, Chili loam and silt loam showed up near the river, along with Canfield, Wooster and Rittman soils on the higher ground and Sebring in a few flat, wet spots. Chili formed in gravelly outwash and is well drained, with high permeability in the substratum. Canfield and Rittman formed in glacial till and both have a fragipan, a dense layer that perches water above it in the wet months. Canfield's perched water table sits 10 to 21 inches down from November to April in a normal year.

So two yards on the same street can dig very differently. A Chili lot tends to excavate cleanly and drain fast, though the sides of a gravelly hole can slough if it sits open too long. A Canfield lot may give us standing water at the bottom of the hole in April. We check the soil map for your parcel before we quote, because it changes how we plan backfill and dewatering.

Plenty of Munroe Falls yards are established lots with mature trees, and the 15 foot setback below eats into every one of them. That points us toward fiberglass shells in the moderate sizes: a Victory 11x22 or a Hero 12x26 fits where a 16 foot wide model would crowd the lot lines. Liberty fiberglass also has a nonporous gelcoat finish, which makes cleaning up after oak and maple leaf drop easier than on a rougher surface.

For an odd-shaped yard, a Latham vinyl liner pool can be built to the exact footprint that is left after setbacks. On the larger lots, an ICF concrete pool gives insulated walls that hold heat and any shape you want.

The pool rules are in the accessory use section of each residential district chapter. For the R-1 district it is Section 1121.05(f). Any pool with more than a foot and a half of water counts as a structure, and:

• The pool, and any associated structure such as a deck, goes in the rear yard at least 15 feet from the side and rear lot lines.
• The pool must be completely enclosed by a wall or fence of sturdy construction at least 4 feet 6 inches high above the water's edge.
• That fence must stand at least 4 feet 6 inches back from the water's edge, unless it is at least 6 feet tall, in which case it can be closer.
• Every opening into the pool area needs a gate, and every gate needs self-closing, self-latching hardware placed at the top of the gate, out of a small child's reach.
• A zoning certificate is required before construction starts.

That fence rule is stricter than the 4 foot minimum used in many nearby cities. Munroe Falls asks for 4 feet 6 inches and keeps the fence back from the water, which means the fenced area has to be bigger than the pool and its coping. We draw the fence line on the 3D design from day one so the deck, the patio and the fence gates all fit inside the rules together.

The same section limits how much of the rear yard can be covered. In the R-1 district, accessory structures and paved areas in the rear yard, driveways included, cannot exceed 35 percent of the rear yard's area. A big pool plus a big patio can hit that number on a smaller lot, so we run the math before you fall in love with a layout.

Munroe Falls issues the zoning permit through its Division of Zoning and Planning at City Hall on Munroe Falls Avenue. The city has a dedicated pool permit application, and every application needs a plot or site plan. The city says approval typically takes 2 to 4 business days.

Since July 1, 2012, Munroe Falls has used the City of Stow Building Department for all residential building permits, including electrical and plumbing. Stow will not issue a building permit without proof of Munroe Falls zoning approval, so the zoning permit always comes first. Contractors register with one city or the other depending on the permit, and the city notes you do not need to register in both for the same job. We handle the registrations and both applications.

Our fiberglass packages start at $68,400 installed. That price includes the shell, Pentair LED lights, a variable-speed pump and DE filter, a pool heater, a 4 foot concrete deck, a cleaning kit, startup chemicals and hookup at the equipment. The Munroe Falls fence is a real line item, since it is taller and longer than in many towns. Other common additions are extra patio, spoils haul-off, dewatering on a wet till lot and the electrical run from your panel to the equipment. We quote those after walking the yard, and financing is available through the lenders we work with.

Zoning here is quick by local standards, and Stow's building permit follows once zoning is approved. The variables are weather and soil. On a gravelly lot we can dig in a wetter week; on a Canfield lot we would rather wait out a soaked spring than set a shell in a flooded hole. The fence has to be up before the pool is in use, so we schedule it alongside the deck pour.

Munroe Falls is about 10 miles from our Ravenna shop, straight across through Kent. We also build in Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Tallmadge, Kent and Hudson, so the crew is rarely far off.