Menino makes pledge on pools

In a move his election rival described as a bid for the ''poolside vote," Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced yesterday that the city will dramatically speed up the approval process for residents who want to add swimming pools, patio decks, or garden sheds to their properties this summer.

Bostonians who wait until June to seek city permission to add such structures often have to wait until fall for the go-ahead. This year, which happens to be an election year, Menino wants to help residents get the job done more quickly.

Menino said the Summer Fast Track Program is simply a ''consumer-friendly, neighborhood-friendly, family-friendly" way to serve the public.

''I think about frustrated parents who bought a pool for their kids in the summertime and they want to put it in, and they go to the building department and they can't get it done until September," he said. ''Politics doesn't play into 99 percent of my decisions."

The mayor said safety regulations and building codes will still be followed.

Beginning June 9, Inspectional Services Department staffers will work overtime to process simple permit applications within a week of when they are filed, instead of the typical month. For more extensive projects, the Zoning Board of Appeal will schedule hearings within a month, instead of the usual three months.

Lisa Timberlake, a spokeswoman for the Inspectional Services Department, said the program would only apply to people seeking to add swimming pools, sheds, or open decks to owner-occupied buildings of three or fewer units. (Roof decks, the open deck's controversial cousin, will not be expedited.)

Inspectional Services, which is normally open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., will stay open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays from June 9 to Sept. 15, when the seasonal rush ends, Timberlake said.

Residents must bring a completed application, a certified plot plan, and two sets of construction plans from a licensed architect or engineer, along with photographs of the site and the abutting properties.

Anyone who wants to build a pool must also have a swimming pool affidavit from a licensed architect or engineer. If the project needs review by a historic district or a landmarks district, the applicant should take care of that first, Timberlake said.

Applicants who bring all the required documents to Inspectional Services will receive a response within 7 days, she said.

Projects that need special permission from the Zoning Board of Appeal will be scheduled for a hearing within 30 days of filing, she said. Those projects will also require approval from abutters and neighborhood groups, preliminary design review by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and review by the Historic District Commission. The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services will be standing by to help set up meetings with neighbors, and the BRA will also try to speed its process along.

The level of review required, said Timberlake, is decided by a range of factors, including zoning laws, historic district desigation, and complexity of project. Building an open deck on Beacon Hill, for example, can trigger a zoning board review, while the same proposal for a house in Dorchester may only require a building permit.

Timberlake said she could not provide details about how many permits are sought each year, but said the applications increase dramatically in the warmer months.

The city will offer the Summer Fast Track Program, if successful this year, in subsequent summers, she said.

City Councilor Maura A. Hennigan, who is running against Menino this year, said that the idea sounded fine to her, but that she did not understand why the city takes so long to process applications in the first place.

''It's ridiculous what people have to go through to get something that's very simple," she said. ''As long as they have worked with their neighbors, it is not usually a function of the community that things are held up; it's a function of city government.

''It's just curious to me what all of a sudden has made that a priority," she said. ''I guess he wants the poolside vote."