STOW, Ohio — Stow officials are confronting a question that more cities across America are beginning to face, as technology changes faster than zoning codes: If a modern retractable safety cover can seal off a swimming pool with the push of a button, should homeowners still be required to build a fence around it?
That debate landed in a Stow hearing room this month after homeowner Terrill Dillinger challenged the city’s requirement that his backyard pool be enclosed by a traditional fence, arguing that his motorized retractable cover provides better protection than many fences ever could.
“I feel we have a better system than a fence,” Dillinger told a city hearing officer during a May 1 appeal hearing…