Cape May Swimming Pools May See New Regulations

CAPE MAY — A committee is looking at new regulations that could require larger lots for swimming pools here.
Zoning Board Chairman Arnold Pittman, who is also a member of the swimming pool committee, addressed City Council at a Sept. 1 meeting during public comment. He said the board took ideas for changes in swimming pool regulations to the Planning Board in 2007 but was told, “hold off” since work was in progress on a new city master plan.
Pittman said he was told the master plan update would address pools but it did not and the Planning Board took no further action. He said there were two different attitudes towards pools in the city, that of real estate salespeople who find them an enhancement for sales and rentals of homes and those who have to live near a pool in their neighborhood and suffer the noise.
Pitman said the city allows pools that will fill an entire backyard, built right to the setback line. He said other cities include pools in calculations for lot coverage.
There may be activity producing a lot of noise in swimming pools all day, well into the night, said Pitman.
Many lots in Cape May measure 50-feet by 100-feet and some have pools filling the entire backyard.
“I don’t think the city had any intent of pools in those yards,” he said.
From a real estate salesperson’s standpoint, a pool in the yard in Cape May is the “best of both worlds,” he said, offering the beach and a swimming pool. He said neighbors next to a home with a pool “don’t get the best of both worlds” because of the noise generated.
Swimming pools also consume plenty of water often 20,000, 30,000 to 40,000 gallons that is in a state of evaporation, said Pittman.
Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. asked Pittman if the pool committee would have its findings ready by a deadline of early this month.
Pittman said the committee would meet the deadline. He said he was waiting for Planning Board Engineer Craig Hurless to produce a draft of a revised ordinance.
Charlotte Todd, chairperson of the city’s Environmental Commission, suggested the city’s noise ordinance “could be tightened and revised.”
Mahaney said the pool committee was dealing only with pool installation and pertinent zoning issues. Currently, only pool decking is included in calculations for lot coverage, said the mayor.He said only City Council has authority over noise regulations.
Todd requested council revisit the city’s noise ordinance. She said there needed to be respect, consideration and civility by pool owners for their neighbors.
Todd said the city needed to set time lines for when noise from those using pools should subside.