This month, the Las Vegas City Council voted to limit new short-term rental licenses to owner-occupied homes. The new rule is effective immediately.
Longtime Downtown resident Kathleen Kahr D’Esposito welcomed the new rule. She said that while out-of-state investors have helped renovate some eyesores, they also price aspiring homeowners out of the market.
“When you purchase a home, you should be able to do that with absolute certainty that a commercial operator is not going to be next door,” D’Esposito said. She’d like to see Downtown neighborhoods strengthened through programs promoting owner-occupied homes.
Jack LeVine, broker/owner of Very Vintage Vegas Realty, supports the new regulations. “I’m an opponent of the corporate ‘moteling’ of our neighborhoods,” LeVine said. On the other hand, he’s against a rule mandating 660 feet between short-term rentals. “I don’t care if two owner-occupied rentals are next door to each other.”
Local artist Kent Caldwell, who purchased and renovated an investment property in Downtown’s Beverly Green neighborhood, is disappointed by the new rule. He had hoped to operate a short-term rental as a stopgap between longer-term rentals. Instead of blanket bans, Caldwell would like to see specific enforcement of the problems associated with them, such as strict fines for noise and trash violations. “Las Vegas is a city centered around tourism,” Caldwell said. “We should be open to some short-term rentals.”
This story originally appeared in the Las Vegas Weekly.