Rehoboth to extend pool moratorium

The Rehoboth Beach commissioners plan to extend a moratorium on building new swimming pools.

They will decide how long to extend the moratorium at the Friday, April 17 meeting. Mayor Sam Cooper suggested a two-month extension, until June, saying the solution to pool-related problems has not been found.

“I’m not real comfortable with licensing and regulating private pools. That’s not what brought us here,” he said.

Commissioner Stan Mills said it was noise that started the discussion; he wondered why the city was regulating pools when noise is the problem. Cooper said pools are “an attractive nuisance."  Pools built at rental properties are not consistent with what was envisioned for residential zoning, he said.

“It is an incompatible use,” he said. “It raised the level of use of that property in such a way that it is a detriment to the peace, order and quiet of the neighborhood.”

Cooper said property owners should have a rental license or a pool license, but not both. However, when asked whether more noise complaints came from private pools or pools at rental houses, Chief Keith Banks said private pools.

Cooper said as proposed, the pool ordinance, which calls for pool owners to be licensed and post safety signs, was heavy-handed. However, he said, it is necessary to pass something more substantial than a new noise ordinance in order to solve the problems of noise coming from pools.

“You don’t have a right to turn a property into a business and rent it by the week,” Cooper said. “Pools, in the last year and half, two years, associated with these properties, have upped the game. They’ve changed the dynamic from what we’ve experienced before.”

Some rental homeowners were not convinced.

David Clark of The Great House said the commissioners’ discussion was vilifying renters. He asked for a simple noise policy that could be passed along to tenants.

Contractor Allen Walker said he and others in town live in the city and occasionally rent out a home with a pool to help pay the mortgage. When Walker asked what happens if a homeowner leaves, dies or sells the property and the new owner wants to rent the house with a pool, Cooper said it should be covered.

“I just don’t think that’s reasonable,” Walker said.

“And I don’t think its reasonable people in these neighborhoods have to put up with the nuisance these pools are creating,” Cooper replied.

The majority of the larger-than-usual audience agreed with the commissioners that something must be done.

Richard Cooper of Country Club Drive said large houses are fundamentally changing the character of the neighborhoods. He said houses with 10 bedrooms are not single-family homes, but are instead intended for three or four families.

“And when you put a pool in the back, they don’t go to the beach,” he said. “They stay at the house. Tightening up the pools is a way of trying to corral people who are abusing the privilege of renting in an R-1 district.”

Commissioner Patrick Gossett said, “It is not a right to have a rental license. It is a privilege." People who decide to build a $1 million house and need revenue to offset the mortgage can choose to do that, he said.

"But if you do that, these are the rules. You’re operating a commercial venture,” Gossett said.

In addition to pools, the commissioners are still debating changes to the zoning code intended to reduce the size of homes. Among the ideas put forward are shrinking the floor-to-area ratio for houses with pools to .50, mandating 50 percent natural area and 20 feet of total side-yard setback.

Mills said the proposed changes could lead to a large number of legally nonconforming properties, forcing owners to get a variance from the board of adjustment to make changes. He said he wanted to be certain of the impact of zoning changes before holding a vote.

Cooper said reducing the FAR to .50 for houses with pools was a bit too aggressive and suggested .55. The existing FAR is .60.  Still to be decided is whether to require more parking for houses with more than four bedrooms.

The commissioners plan to continue discussion of the pool and zoning ordinances at their Monday, May 4 workshop.