How does an HOA board permanently close and fill in the community pool?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised September 29, 2026

How an HOA board closes the pool for good: the owner vote in TX, FL and CO, health and demolition permits, engineered fill, reserves, insurance and the land.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Removing a pool is an owner decision dressed up as a maintenance project. Get a written answer from the association's attorney on what vote your declaration requires, show owners the full cost of every option, and hold the vote before anyone signs a demolition contract. After a yes vote, close the pool by board resolution, keep the fence up, pull a demolition permit, and fill the hole to the city's standard with an engineer's compaction report. From the first board discussion to sod on the ground, plan on eight to twelve months. The state rules and local permit examples below show what to look for, and your own governing documents and local code may differ. This is general education, not legal advice.

Find out what vote your documents require

Search the declaration and the plat for the words pool, recreation and amenity. If the declaration lists the pool as common area the association must maintain, or grants owners a right to use it, removing it almost always means amending the declaration first. Ask counsel for a short letter stating what vote removes the pool and what vote allows the planned use of the land. The state defaults differ. In Texas, Property Code 209.0041(h) requires 67 percent of the total votes allocated to owners to amend a declaration, and 209.0041(h-1) lets a lower percentage written in the declaration control. In a Florida HOA, section 720.306(1)(b) allows an amendment by two-thirds of the voting interests when the documents are silent. A Florida condominium follows its declaration on material alterations to the common elements, and where the declaration has no procedure, section 718.113(2)(a) requires approval from 75 percent of the total voting interests. For Colorado communities under CCIOA, section 38-33.3-217(1)(a) allows a declaration amendment by more than 50 percent of the votes, or a higher percentage the declaration sets, capped at 67 percent. Selling the land is a separate question. Colorado section 38-33.3-312(1) requires at least 67 percent of the votes, including 67 percent of the votes allocated to units the declarant does not own, before the association conveys common elements.

Put the cost of every option on one page

Owners vote on money, so show them the money. Add up what the pool costs in a normal year: service contract, chemicals, utilities, the fob system, any attendant, the permit, and the reserve contribution for its components. Beside it, put the bill that forced the question, usually a resurfacing, a cracked shell or a failed deck, backed by two written bids. Then price three options side by side: repair it and keep it, keep it with less (shorter season, no heater, fewer hours), and remove it. Removal bids should include demolition, capping utilities, engineered fill, permits and the new use. Show each option as dollars per home per year. Be honest about the reason. A 45-year-old shell the reserve study says is at the end of its life is a strong case. A pool the board would rather not supervise is a weaker one, and owners can tell the difference.

Decide what replaces it before owners vote

A ballot that says 'close the pool' and nothing else deserves to lose. The usual choices are open lawn, a pavilion with picnic tables, a playground, a sport court, a dog area, extra parking, or selling the parcel to a neighbor. Anything built on the site changes the demolition method, so settle the use first. Two checks belong here. Call the city or county planning office and ask whether the subdivision plat or a planned development approval lists the pool as a required amenity or open space, because some approvals do. And in Texas, remember that 209.0051(h) bars the board from voting outside a noticed open meeting on amending a dedicatory instrument, amending the budget, selling real property, or building a capital improvement that is not a repair or replacement of an existing one. A new pavilion falls in that last group. Our guide on holding a town hall before an owner vote covers how to take questions before the ballot goes out.

Sample ballot question

Fill in the brackets and have counsel check the wording against your declaration before it goes out. 'Shall the association permanently close the community pool at [address], remove the pool and its equipment, fill the site as required by [city or county] code, and convert the area to [open lawn with a picnic pavilion], at an estimated cost of $[amount] to be paid from [reserves / a special assessment of $[amount] per lot due [date]]; and shall Article [number] of the declaration be amended as shown in the attached text to remove the pool from the list of common area amenities? Yes / No.' Attach the one-page cost comparison, the removal bid, a site sketch of the new use, and the text of the amendment. If your documents allow it, give owners at least 30 days between the mailing and the close of voting.

Health, demolition and fill permits

Ask whoever permits the pool, in writing, what it needs to close its file. In Florida, section 514.031 requires an operating permit from the Department of Health for a public pool, renewed each year, but section 514.0115 exempts from most state pool regulation the pools serving homeowners associations of no more than 32 units or parcels, so a smaller Florida HOA may have no state permit to close. In Texas and Colorado, ask whichever city or county office inspects the pool. The demolition permit carries the real rules, set by your city or county. The Colony, Texas is a good example of what to expect: one permit covers removing the equipment, capping gas and electric, and filling; the pool must come out to 2 feet below finished grade; the floor needs a 2-inch drain hole in the deep end plus a 1-inch hole for every 50 square feet, no more than 8 feet apart and never fewer than ten; a soils engineer must sign the fill plan; fill must reach 90 percent of maximum density; the top 30 inches must be natural soil; and nothing may be built on the site unless the entire pool is excavated before fill. Maricopa County, Arizona asks for two holes of at least 2 by 2 feet and walls removed to at least 18 inches below grade. So partial demolition, where the contractor breaks the floor, knocks in the upper walls and fills, is the cheaper route for lawn. Full removal costs more, and in The Colony it is the only route if anything will ever be built on the spot. Call 811 before the contractor digs.

Between closing day and fill day

Close the pool by resolution at an open meeting and send owners the date. Schedule it after the swim season ends. Leave the fence and gate in place until the fill is done. In Texas, Health and Safety Code 757.003 requires a property owners association that owns, controls or maintains a pool to enclose the pool yard with a fence at least 48 inches high, and 757.004 requires the gates to self-close and self-latch. A half-drained or half-demolished pool is a worse fall hazard than a full one. Keep the water treated or covered while you wait for permits, since a green pool breeds mosquitoes and draws code complaints. Do not drain an in-ground pool without the contractor's sign-off. Groundwater pushing up on an empty shell can crack it or lift it, and much of Florida and the Texas Gulf Coast has a high water table. Cancel the service contract, fobs and utilities only after the electrician terminates power under the permit.

The paperwork after the fill

Keep the demolition permit, the engineer's recommendation, the compaction report, the final inspection and dated photos in the permanent file. Send the reserve study provider the change so the next update drops the pool components and adds whatever replaced them; our guide on hiring a reserve study company explains what the provider needs. Tell the insurance agent in writing and ask what premium or schedule changes follow. Remove the pool lines from next year's budget. Repeal the pool rules, refund any fob deposits your policy promises, and update the website, the welcome packet and the amenity list in resale certificates. Record the declaration amendment in the county real property records, following your declaration's steps. Before moving money set aside for pool resurfacing into demolition, ask counsel whether your reserve policy or state law limits what that money can pay for.

A sample timeline and the mistakes that sink these projects

Month 1: the board discusses removal at an open meeting, orders two removal bids and a repair bid, and asks counsel for the vote letter. Month 2: the one-page cost comparison goes to owners with a survey. Month 3: town hall. Month 4: the ballot and amendment go out. Month 5: votes are counted; after a yes, the amendment is recorded and the board sets the closing date. Months 6 and 7: permits, 811, demolition, inspections, fill and the compaction report. Month 8: final inspection, sod or construction, the reserve study update and the insurance change. Five mistakes come up again and again. Boards let the pool go green for a summer to build support for removal, and it poisons the vote. They put 'close the pool' on the ballot with no plan for the land. They fill with loose dirt and no compaction report, then find the pavilion slab cracking two years later. They forget the plat. And they keep charging reserve contributions for a pool that no longer exists, or stop them before the pool is actually gone.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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