Clark County amends short-term rental ordinance

Clark County voted Tuesday to amend upcoming short-term rental regulations that a court previously ruled to be vague and unconstitutional.

With a unanimous vote, commissioners moved to “clean up” language a District Court judge had struck down, county attorney Lisa Logsdon said.

“The county took many of the court’s suggestions in drafting these amendments to ensure that the amendments address the court’s concerns with the ordinance,” Logsdon said.

While District Court Judge Jessica Peterson issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association, she did not declare the entire ordinance unconstitutional.

That prompted Clark County to move forward with the business licensing process and it oversaw a lottery last week that ranked prospective short-term renters to determine the order in which the applications will be considered. The association, which represents about 700 county homeowners, said the lottery wasn’t needed because stern regulations had already dissuaded many prospective renters from participating.

The association recently petitioned the Nevada Supreme Court to rule on the case.

“Many of those amendments do very little to fix the infirmities the Court has serious issues with and in other cases the County just didn’t fix some of the Sections at all,” said Jacqueline Flores, president and director of the association, in a statement Tuesday. “The County is doing very little or nothing at all to satisfy the unconstitutionality of those provisions.”

Logsdon said the county wants to resolve the lawsuit; the district attorney’s office has asked the association to submit a “written settlement offer” and is awaiting a reply.

Flores said the district attorney’s office said last month that there was “lack of interest” by the commission to discuss a possible settlement. “If the County Commissioners have now changed their mind then we welcome that conversation,” she added.

Amendments

The amended ordinance strikes a requirement that applications be signed under penalty of perjury.

And while the original version allowed inspectors discretion on when they could show up at rentals, they will now have to provide a 48-hour notice and limit inspections to areas of the home used by tenants.

Parties still won’t be allowed at rental properties, but the county is no longer defining what that gathering might look like, for example, striking “weddings” from the language. The county also clarified that homeowners can still host parties unrelated to a short-term rental.

“No Short-Term Rental Unit may be used for any purpose other than for dwelling, lodging, or sleeping and for activities that are incidental to its use for dwelling, lodging or sleeping,” the new language reads.

Language saying that “the emission of noise, light, smoke, particulate matter, odors, and hazardous materials from the short-term rental residential unit which unreasonable annoys or disturbs the quiet, comfort, or repose of any persons of ordinary sensibilities, is prohibited,” also was deleted.

The county is instead is relying on existing code that regulates noise, lighting and air-quality standards.

Furthermore, sound amplification will be limited indoors, while pools, hot tubs, barbecues and firepits will be prohibited from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., according to the short-term rental ordinance.

Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson already regulate short-term rentals listed on sites such as Airbnb and Vrbo. State legislation passed last session reversed a ban in unincorporated Clark County.

Commission Chairman Jim Gibson said that the county will comply with future court decisions.

“We’re not the court, the court will do what it does,” he said. “We react to the court’s order.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.

An earlier version of this story misstated the status of settlement negotiations. The district attorney’s office has asked the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association to submit a written settlement offer.