Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Clark County amends short-term rental ordinance

airbnb

Patrick Semansky / AP, file

The Airbnb app icon is displayed on an iPad screen in Washington, D.C., on May 8, 2021. Airbnb Inc. reports quarterly financial results on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023.

Amid backlash from short-term rental owners and a District Court ruling challenging parts of the ordinance governing the properties, the Clark County Commission today unanimously passed amendments to the code.

Clark County District Court Judge Jessica Peterson filed a preliminary injunction in February that ruled portions of the county’s ordinance regulating short-term rental properties unconstitutional.

In a 20-page document, Peterson called several rules in the ordinance “unconstitutionally vague and/or overbroad,” with criticisms that there were “no standards to ensure fair and equal treatment” in certain areas like fines and penalties for ordinance violators.

“The court specifically finds that certain provisions within the ordinance are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad and fail to provide notice sufficient to enable a person of ordinary intelligence to understand what conduct is prohibited,” Peterson wrote.

The Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association, which represents vacation rental owners across Southern Nevada, sued the county last year when the ordinance was originally passed.

Jacqueline Flores, founder of the association, said in a March county meeting the issue is not that the county wants to regulate short-term rentals but how they’re going about it.

County officials said there are an estimated 10,000 illegal short-term rental properties in Clark County listed on sites like Airbnb and Vrbo, which are a popular way for travelers to rent rooms, apartments or houses.

The practice of using personal homes for commercial lodging was legalized by the state in 2021 and reversed a ban on these rentals in unincorporated Clark County.

The ordinance amendments clarify or remove areas the court deemed vague, overbroad or unconstitutional, county officials said.

Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, an opponent of short-term rental properties, said the ordinance has “not impacted anybody that was supposed to be in business.”

The rule changes come after the county held a short-term rental license lottery at a meeting on March 29. There were 1,306 applications.

There is no set number of licenses the county will issue, but officials said it would not exceed 1% of the county’s housing stock.

“If I were to have rated the lottery and the way it were implemented, I would have given it an ‘F,’” Johnny Dortch, a short-term rental owner, said at today’s meeting.

John Wong, who also applied for a license, said the lottery included properties that were ineligible. Wong said he found 39 rental applications involved properties within 2,500 feet of a resort hotel.

“The county’s request to rush the process continues to result in missteps, create confusion (and) complicate the process more,” Wong said.

Dortch called the lottery process a “haphazard failure” and called for it to be redone.