Council overrides health department, approves decorative pool

Barbara Diamond

A county code that three attorneys described as ambiguous and that a

county official said was being revised for clarification gave the City

Council the loophole it needed to approve a colorful, decorative bottom

on the swimming pool at the Laguna Colony Hotel.

The county Health Department first denied the Athens Group application

for a tile-bottomed pool with a decorative design in September. Athens

Group appealed the decision to the city.

At the April 9 council meeting, Health Department representative

Patricia Gentry said the application was denied because the code requires

a plain white bottom for public pools.

“It is our opinion that the design features present a health hazard,”

she said.

Athens Group President Kim Richards hired experts that testified that

the decorative bottom and the infinity lip on the pool, for which the

county also denied approval, presented no risks.

Council members said the county could provide no empirical evidence of

risk.

A county official said no decorative public pool bottoms had been

approved in Orange County in 20 years.

Language in the code described as ambiguous by Councilman and attorney

Steven Dicterow, City Attorney Philip Kohn and Athens Group attorney

Charles Black left an opening for council members to take the position

that common sense dictated that decorative pools could be approved.

Mayor Wayne Baglin opposed the approval.

Baglin showed his concern about another aspect of the Laguna Colony

Hotel development when he appealed the administrative approval of a

one-foot increase in the height of some of the resort’s buildings planned

to be built along Pacific Coast Highway.

Project manager John Mansour said the increase would not further block

views that were already blocked by other buildings, but would hide

required mechanical installations. An appeal, he said, would slow down

the project.

All administrative approvals are subject to appeal by any member of

the council.