Not just beaches: Pools in multi-family buildings can reopen June 1 in Miami-Dade
Swimming pools in private multi-family buildings can reopen Monday, June 1, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced Sunday as he continues to pull back on social distancing measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The reopening date aligns with the county’s reopening of beaches, a decision Gimenez made Friday. Pools in condominiums and apartment complexes have been off limits since March 30, when a frustrated Gimenez chastised his constituents for not taking social distancing measures seriously in pool areas.
“Unfortunately, some people are not taking this seriously, and they are not practicing social distancing,” Gimenez said in a video issued at the time.
Gimenez has yet to release the rules that people will have to follow, saying only that the pool reopenings will be “subject to certain restrictions.” The mayor said he would review the recommendations of medical experts later this week before releasing an order.
On Sunday, Gimenez explained his decision during a conference call with the mayors of Miami-Dade’s coastal cities. The move came one day after Miami Beach commissioners passed a resolution urging the county to reopen pools in multi-family buildings in the face of mounting frustration from residents.
Gimenez similarly followed the lead of Miami Beach to reopen beaches. After the Miami Beach City Commission approved a June 1 reopening date Friday, the county did the same.
Municipal governments have generally been allowed to enforce stricter measures related to COVID-19 than county or state orders. Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey was among the mayors to order common areas in multi-family buildings to shut down even before March 30.
But Davey said Sunday that he, along with the county’s other coastal mayors, seem to support the pool reopenings now.
“We can obviously put regulations in place, but the condos are gonna have to police themselves,” he said. “Government can’t regulate everything, and we can’t just keep stuff closed in perpetuity.”
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has clashed with Gimenez over social distancing rules and generally taken a more conservative approach, said Miami would follow the county’s lead on reopening private pools.
As Miami-Dade reopens restaurants and public spaces with restrictions intended to keep the novel coronavirus at bay, condo owners and managers have been trying to do the same for their private spaces — setting up mask and social distancing rules and, in a few cases, even imposing fines on violators.
The county’s rules for residential pools could have similar elements to its rules for beaches. In a draft guide circulated Sunday, county officials said beachgoers will be required to bring masks and wear them if they are less than six feet apart from non-household members.
Gimenez’s March 30 emergency order that shut down pools coincided with his closure of other communal spaces in multi-family buildings, including gyms. But Sunday’s announcement made no mention of those spaces, which remain closed.
Davey said he’s hopeful that residents will follow whatever rules the county enacts on pools. If they don’t, he said, there will be consequences.
“As long as people understand that if they don’t social distance, they could lose all these reopenings,” he said.
This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 4:23 PM.
