A lap pool - good idea or bad?

Really would like a swimming pool, but property is only 7800 SF and occupied by a large house. Not much room on the sides, the front is a driveway and a

2 car garage, and a center courtyard "surrounded by the house. The back is fifteen feet from the property line and sixty feet wide and has a five feet utility easement. On the other side is another property (not street or anything). The underground electric line, phone lines, sewer & water all comes out on the side to the front.

Is it too far fetched to consider a lap pool in the back all the way against the property line (we will have to find a way to get the utility easement "waived"?) may be 50 feet by 10 feet? or will it look like a "ditch" too much? Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance,

O
Reply to
orangetrader
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Better check with the zoning commish first to see if there are setback requirements. Jim

Reply to
Speedy Jim

Sounds like a deal killer right there.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I have heard of people getting an exception to their setback or easement requirements? I don't know much about how to go about doing this...any idea? or is this a myth?

O
Reply to
orangetrader

all the way against>the property line (we will have to find a way to get the utility easement

I don't think you should worry so much about it "looking like a 'ditch' " as much as whether or not you'll really be able to swim laps. Do you swim laps regularly? If I were you, I'd go to your local YMCA or other pool and swim some laps, and see how much length you need in order to get a good workout. I am a regular lap swimmer, and I don't feel as if I've had a good workout if I can't swim in a pool that is AT LEAST 60 feet long (that's 88 lengths to the mile). Most YMCA-type pools are about 75 feet or 25 yards long. I get a much better workout from that length. If I swim in a 40 or 50 foot pool, I feel as if I'm nearly half way across by the time I kick off from one end. If these issues don't matter that much to you, then I guess you'd have to be concerned with whether or not there is a lot of bedrock to drill through. That can be prohibitively expensive. An acquaintance of mine had a 60-foot pool built in her backyard. It is a single lane in width. It's very nice, but her husband is a multi-millionaire, so they could afford it. I've often wanted to ask her, "Why didn't you just make it 75 feet long. I mean, if you're that wealthy, why not put in the extra fifteen feet?" Of course, I didn't say that, but I do wonder about it.

Reply to
Chemqueries

very good point. I need to do some more thinking. Thanks for the advice...

O
Reply to
orangetrader

Typically what you are talking about is called a variance. It's a variance granted from some specific zoning reqt, like the amount of sideyard required in the zoning for your home. First, you need to determine whether you need one or not. Either the building, code enforcement depts at your municipality are the place to start. If you do need a variance, the process is outlined. It usually includes a fee, submitting site plans, notifiying property owners within a prescribed radius, attending a public hearing where you will state your case and property owners will have a chance to object, etc. Then you may or may not get what you want.

Before you even get to that point, I would evaluate why you want a pool and how much you will really use a particular pool. For some people, they are all about entertaining, for others for their kids, excercise, etc. Figure out what you could put in the space you have vs how much use you will get out of it. From a resale standpoint, studies show people on average don't get back much of what they spend on a pool.

Reply to
Chet Hayes

I think we are talking about two different things. Varience is a change in the in the zoning that alows you to something otherwise not permitted. Your definition is correct.

An easment is a right of way. It allows the utility company (or whoever has the easment) to use the property. In the case of the utility company, they may not want a 50' pool where they part the trucks while working on power lines. Or they don't want to drive through a pool to get to the lines up the path when they need work.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Understood. But this is not a property with a back alley or a back road. The back side fence is shared with an abuting property. There is no existing utility that runs along side or across it (well as far as I can tell from the survey). So I am not sure how the utility company can get to park there, there is no vehicle access to the back of the property from either side of the house (not enough room) and the same situation from the other property. So this easement is along a series of 10 to 12 fences with property on both sides with no vehicular access and some of those are concrete fences (seems they should not have been permitted to even put in fences there!

O
Reply to
orangetrader

I seem to remember seeing on a home show, a small pool, which had a real powerful pump in it that one would have to swim full strength to stay put. Kinda like a swimming pool treadmill. It looked to be about 20' or so in diameter.

Reply to
John Hines

On 12/3/2004 10:48 PM US(ET), orangetrader took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

That's called a "variance". Your adjoining neighbors get to vote whether or not they want to allow you to place something closer to their properties than is allowed by code. Even if they all say it's OK, the zoning department can overrule the vote, or not allow the vote to take place at all. A pool is considered an "attractive nuisance". It has more potential danger than if you were asking about a variance for an addition to your house, or a garage, shed, or some other structure. The code also may require a fence completely surrounding the pool which geatly increases the area needed for a pool.

Reply to
willshak

Oh, yes! I've seen advertisements for those so-called "Endless Pools." I saw one that was about 10' x 11' or so, and it generates a variable current, anywhere from 0 to 4 miles an hour, and you have to swim against the current. It sounds like a good workout! I think they start at about $20,000. You can have them inside, too, if you have a room large enough and can tolerate the humidity.

Reply to
Chemqueries

In the area where we live there are "utility" easements that run in the area 5 feet adjacent to most lot lines. They are there for the utility companies and municipal authorities to use to run utilities through the property - not necessarily park vehicles and or use to allow their service vehicles access to anything.

Recently several utilities in this area have gone wild and are running extensive networks of conduit for fiber optic lines in most if not all the utility easement in the city! Time warner cable and several telephone companies in addition to the town installed conduits and fished fiber optics through them about four years ago. Now they have found that the previous installations were inadequate and are laying in more conduits (in various colors to distinguish the owners and services) and following through with cable installations that are using them. The town for instance is installing a synchronized traffic light system that requires all traffic lights in the town to be connected t the central computer control point - this has resulted in them using 'ditch witch' devices to run it along the sidewalks and adjacent to the streets in those utility easements as well as in the medians on the larger roads. As a result this has resulted in the removal of a significant number of larger trees on the streets - the other utilities have gone through private property using the easements and removed any shrubbery that happened to be in an area where they had to 'go under' - none of the utilities doing this are obligated to restore the landscape they destroy because this was the purpose of the easement and the property owners who made 'improvements' in the easements did so at the risk of this happening!

Reply to
avoidspam

Actually, they can do anything they damn well please, within legal limits.

The other poster mentioned a variance. Truth is, if the did get an exception on the easment, they still may need a variance, but that depends on the local laws.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Yes, start thinking about this:

1- endless pools. They're about 8' wide x 12-15 or 20' long and large pumps are used to push water towards the swimmer. You can swim to your heart's content and never get to the other side.

2- Most municipalities and utilities will not allow anything on a utility easement, variance or not. If they allow you, everyone will want to do it.

3- When you purchase a McMansion on an undersized lot, lose the mindset that your property is in proportion to your house, or that there's room for all of the traditional backyard fixin's.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

Reply to
HaHaHa

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