Senate committee advances bill to keep private pool rentals outside public-pool rules

The Senate Veterans, Military Affairs & Public Protection Committee voted unanimously to advance Senate Bill 61, which sponsors say would expand the definition of private swimming pools to include those rented through online platforms such as Swimply.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Craig Richardson (Senator, Third District), told the committee the measure is meant to protect private property rights after recent enforcement actions by the Department of Public Health. "This is a private property rights bill, specifically, protecting the private use of swimming pools for those private landowners," Richardson said. He said the Department of Public Health has sued homeowners in Franklin Circuit Court for listing residential pools on a platform called Swimply and is seeking injunctions that would treat those pools as public recreation facilities.

The bill would expand a post-2024 statutory framework that Richardson described as creating…