Pool Remodel Permits and HOA Approval in Flower Mound, TX

Applying for a pool permit

What goes in the application

Applications are filed through the Town's eTRAKiT system. The Town's Swimming Pool Construction Information Packet, written for building a pool, asks for plans stamped by the electric provider (Oncor or CoServ), a site plan, a separate drainage and access plan, a notarized Pool Construction Affidavit and Pool Alarm Affidavit, and a gas line diagram if a heater is planned. A job with several outdoor projects goes in as one Umbrella (UMB) permit, each project following its own packet.

Review times and deadlines

Plan review for a residential remodel or addition takes about 5 working days. Once issued, a pool permit lapses if work doesn't start within 45 days or hasn't passed final inspection within 180 days, and an application left unpursued is treated as abandoned after 45 days. Changes to approved plans must be re-stamped before an inspection, at $110 an hour with a $110 minimum, and can take up to two business days.

Fees and contractor registration

Under Ordinance No. 36-26, in force from October 1, 2026, an in-ground pool permit costs $430 and a spa or above-ground pool permit $250, and the $120 plan review fee is credited to the permit once the plans are approved; the pool packet adds a drainage inspection fee, so ask Engineering whether one applies. The schedule's $250 residential remodel fee, for work that adds no square footage, isn't tied to pools anywhere in it. Whoever applies registers as a contractor with the Town for the calendar year: $40 for a general contractor, with plumbing, mechanical and electrical contractors exempt from the fee.

Barriers, setbacks and pool steps

Pool barriers and gates

The Town's pool barrier stands at least 48 inches tall, measured on the outside, away from the pool, with no more than 2 inches under it (4 inches over a solid surface such as a deck) and no opening a 1-3/4-inch sphere can pass. Pedestrian gates self-close and self-latch, with the latch 54 inches from the bottom of the gate, and swing away from the pool. The Town's amendments delete the code's section on mesh fences as pool barriers. Where a wall of the house is part of the barrier, the homeowner certifies one protection by a notarized form, at or before the pre-plaster inspection: door and window alarms listed to UL 2017, a safety cover listed to ASTM F1346, or self-closing, self-latching doors with the release at least 54 inches up. While a pool is under construction, a temporary fence at least 48 inches high surrounds it until the permanent one is up.

Setbacks and easements

No pool, spa or hot tub may sit in the front yard or, with its deck, in an easement, and each stays at least five feet from the side and rear property lines; ask the Town where it measures from. A pool stays at least 3 feet from any building with a foundation and a foot away for every foot of its depth, or it needs a sealed engineered design; above-ground pools and spas are exempt from that foundation setback. Equipment stays out of the front yard, easements and drainage swales, at least 2 feet off the property line and off any shared fence, with a gutter or rain guard above it where it sits beside an overhanging roof.

Steps, benches and ledges

Backyard pool stairs follow the pool code's residential chapter, and the Town's amendments leave its stair rules as written: in the 2021 edition, treads at least 10 inches deep with 240 square inches of walking surface, and risers other than the top and bottom ones no taller than 12 inches. Those rules shape tanning ledges and pool steps added in a pool remodeling job. Diving areas follow the code's minimum water envelopes or the diving equipment maker's, whichever is greater. The Town's own stair sizes and swimout stripe are amendments for public pools, such as apartment and HOA pools.

HOA and apartment pools follow separate rules

A pool that isn't built or kept with a single-family home or a two-residence townhouse falls under the Town's public-pool article, which adopts the state's public-pool standards. In that article a remodel is a replacement of, or change to, the pool, its structure, its circulation system or their parts; routine maintenance and repair are not remodels. Texas Health and Safety Code chapter 757 adds enclosure rules that reach only pools run by an apartment owner or a property owners association: at least 48 inches high, gates that self-close, self-latch, lock and open outward, and a latch generally at least 60 inches up. A city's own standards for those enclosures must match the chapter, and a city may fine up to $1,000 a violation. None of it applies to a backyard pool.