Do I need a Certificate of Appropriateness for a pool in San Marco?

No, for most houses. San Marco is not a locally designated historic district the way Riverside, Avondale, and Springfield are, so a normal house needs a city pool permit but not a Certificate of Appropriateness. The exception is a house individually designated a Local Landmark, which does need a COA for exterior work including a pool.

Can a pool even fit on my narrow San Marco lot?

Usually, once we know the access constraint. Many San Marco backyards are 25 to 40 feet deep behind a detached garage, which fits a plunge pool, a cocktail pool, or a compact gunite shell with a spa, even when a full lap pool will not fit. The bigger question is how equipment reaches the yard.

How do you get pool equipment into a backyard with no side-yard access?

On the tightest lots we crane a fiberglass shell over the house from the street rather than drag equipment through a 3 to 4 foot side yard. For gunite work, a mini excavator that fits through a standard gate handles the dig, and a small-line pump truck reaches the pool for the shotcrete pour.

Will old sewer or gas lines get in the way of my pool excavation?

Often, yes. Houses from the 1920s through the 1940s here have sewer laterals and gas lines that predate reliable as-built records, and a lateral can run diagonally across a backyard rather than straight to the street. We call for utility locates before digging and route the pool and pad around what is found.

Does a riverfront lot in Granada or River Oaks have different pool rules?

Yes. River-facing lots fall under the San Marco Overlay Zone in the city's zoning code, which adds setback rules near the bulkhead beyond the standard citywide pool setbacks. Those lots also tend to run in FEMA Zone AE, which affects equipment pad placement. We confirm the overlay and flood zone for a specific parcel before finalizing a design.

What does a small gunite pool cost in San Marco?

A compact gunite shell sized for a tight backyard, with basic equipment and a small deck, typically runs $65,000 to $95,000 as a 2026 Jacksonville area estimate, toward the lower end of the general gunite range. A fiberglass alternative on the same lot often runs $55,000 to $85,000 installed.

Duval County, Florida

Pool Building on Small San Marco Lots

Pools and cages engineered to reach a backyard a full-size excavator cannot, on lots built in the 1920s for a car, not a crane.

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Rectangular pool with a smooth gelcoat finish in a walled garden

Licensed, insured builders
Your pool is built by a licensed Florida pool builder you can look up
Fixed line-item pricing
A fixed price for the scope you approve, priced line by line
3D design first
See the pool before a shovel touches the yard
Free on-site estimates
No obligation
One point of contact
The same person handles your design, your quote, and your questions

San Marco's brick and stucco houses from the 1920s through the 1950s sit close together on small lots around the Square, with narrow side yards and a detached garage or alley at the back. HN Pool Construction designs plunge pools, cocktail pools, and compact gunite shells for these lots, built with mini excavators and crane sets that clear the house and permitted through the City of Jacksonville.

Permits through
City of Jacksonville Building Inspection Division
ZIP codes
32207
Areas we cover
San Marco Square, Lake Marco, Granada, River Oaks
From our office
San Marco is 5 to 10 minutes from our Jacksonville office, across the Main Street or Acosta bridge from downtown or up Hendricks Avenue from the Southside.

What the homes and lots are like in San Marco

Telfair Stockton opened San Marco in 1925 and started building the next year with an Italian Renaissance theme on 80 acres of the old Villa Alexandria estate. The streets curve on a City Beautiful plan instead of a grid, and the lots platted along them are narrow, often 50 to 60 feet wide, with only a few feet of side clearance between houses. A pool project here is a lot-access problem before it is a design problem.

Granada and River Oaks run larger toward the river, with 1930s and 1940s houses and deeper backyards that can take a full-size gunite pool with a spa. Colonial Manor, South Riverside, and St. Nicholas skew to smaller 1940s and 1950s lots where a plunge or cocktail pool is often the realistic option. Almost every house has a detached garage at the rear line, sometimes on an alley, and the yard behind it is where the pool has to go, often right where a mature oak already stands.

Who permits a pool in San Marco?

San Marco is part of the consolidated City of Jacksonville, so pool permits go through the City of Jacksonville Building Inspection Division and are filed online through JaxEPICS. A pool permit follows the standard sequence of pre-gunite steel and bonding, deck bond and pressure test, electrical, a Chapter 515 safety barrier final, and a final inspection before use.

San Marco is not a locally designated historic district the way Riverside, Avondale, and Springfield are, so a typical house does not need a Certificate of Appropriateness for a new pool or cage. The exception is a house individually designated a Local Landmark, tracked by the San Marco Preservation Society, which does need a COA for exterior work. There is no neighborhood-wide HOA, so setbacks in the city zoning code are the main constraint, and river-facing lots in Granada and River Oaks fall under the San Marco Overlay Zone, a waterfront design overlay with its own setback rules near the bulkhead. TODO_VERIFY the current pool setback and height limits under that overlay before quoting a riverfront lot.

Common here

Pool work we take on in San Marco

Fiberglass Pools
Fiberglass shells craned over the house or set through a narrow side yard with a mini excavator, on lots where a gunite crew cannot stage full-size equipment.
Fiberglass Pools in Jacksonville
Gunite & Concrete Pools
Compact plunge and cocktail-size gunite pools poured with a small-line pump truck reaching over a 1920s roofline.
Gunite & Concrete Pools in Jacksonville
Pool Screen Enclosures
Low-profile cages anchored just a few feet from the neighboring fence, engineered around the detached garage and alley access.
Pool Screen Enclosures in Jacksonville
Pool & Spa Combos
A flush or raised spa built into a small plunge pool footprint where there is no room for a separate spa shell.
Pool & Spa Combos in Jacksonville
Pool Decks & Pavers
Narrow travertine or paver decks that thread between the house, the property line, and mature oak root zones on Granada and St. Nicholas lots.
Pool Decks & Pavers in Jacksonville

What else to know about building here

Access is the defining fact of a San Marco pool build. Where a gate will not clear a standard excavator, we use a mini excavator or set a fiberglass shell with a crane in the street, lifted over the house rather than dragged through the yard. Old sewer laterals and gas lines under these 1920s and 1930s lots have to be located and marked first, since as-built records this old are often incomplete.

The river edge of Granada, River Oaks, and the Southbank sits in FEMA Zone AE, and the low streets near Lake Marco see nuisance flooding in heavy rain, which affects how a pool equipment pad is sited on those lots. Mature live oaks and magnolias planted in the 1920s are now inside the city's protected tree size, so a pool footprint that would take one out usually gets redrawn instead.

Book a free estimate in San Marco See 2026 cost ranges

Gallery

Recent pool projects

Rectangular gunite pool with a raised stone wall
Fruit Cove, FL
Raised spa with arcing deck jets
Lakeside, FL
Screened pool and raised spa
St. Johns, FL

The process

How a San Marco pool project runs

01
Estimate
We walk the yard, check access, grade, and setbacks, and talk through what you want. Free, and usually under an hour.
02
3D design
You see the pool, deck, and enclosure together in 3D before anything is dug. Shape, finish, lighting, all of it.
03
Fixed quote
A line-item quote. Shell, plumbing, equipment, finish, coping, deck, and cage each priced on their own line.
04
Build
A licensed Florida pool builder takes it from here, pulls the permit, and builds to the approved design.
05
Walkthrough
Once it passes final inspection you walk the finished pool with your builder, get the warranties, and learn how to run the equipment.

FAQ

San Marco pool questions

Pool services for San Marco

Free estimate

Book a free estimate in San Marco

Pick a day that works. We confirm the time, walk the yard with you, and follow up with a 3D design and a fixed line-item quote.

Licensed, insured builders. Your pool is built by a licensed Florida pool builder you can look up.
Fixed line-item pricing. A fixed price for the scope you approve, priced line by line.
3D design first. See the pool before a shovel touches the yard.
Free on-site estimates. No obligation.
One point of contact. The same person handles your design, your quote, and your questions.

Pool Building on Small San Marco Lots

What the homes and lots are like in San Marco

Who permits a pool in San Marco?

Pool work we take on in San Marco

Fiberglass Pools

Gunite & Concrete Pools

Pool Screen Enclosures

Pool & Spa Combos

Pool Decks & Pavers