Residents Express Opinions on Short Term Rentals

Last night, Wednesday July 12^th was the Town Hall Discussion held at the Elaine K Smith center with several members of city staff and a great deal of passionate commentary from citizens on all sides of the issue. There has been an online survey available HERE, and all residents are encouraged to fill this out to express their thoughts thru August 1^st.

City Manager, Taylour Tedder opened the meeting and then Community Development Director, Michael Mays presented some basic information on the topic and then turned the majority of the time over to the residents to voice their thoughts.

To review the basics once again:

• Currently the City does not allow short term rentals – those lasting less than 30 days.


• In 2021, the State of Nevada passed AB 363 which required most communities in the state to create ordinances regarding short term rentals and to establish their desired regulations for them.


• However, that legislation did not apply to cities under 25,000 in population – thus Boulder City has been exempted.

This means that Boulder City now has to play catch-up. But in the meantime, over the past unknown number of years, some residents have quietly started to operate their own short term rental businesses via platforms such as AirBNB, Vrbo, or other methods.

It’s unclear whether these folks knew of the status of the city’s ordinance. Some may have operated on a ‘beg forgiveness rather than ask permission’ while others maybe never even considered they needed to ask. Our economy has changed a LOT even before the pandemic – gig workers are now highly common. Afterall, if one becomes an Uber driver for example – they don’t need a city license to operate and certainly would never think of checking for there to be a law regarding their entrepreneurial effort. The popularity of AirBNB stays in particular have proliferated throughout the entire world, and many communities have struggled to address how these types of small businesses should be responded too.

In his review with the public, Michael Mays outlined the types of requirements other cities have put on their short term rentals that we could potentially borrow from, should they decide to allow them to continue. Such as:

• Require owners to live in the unit full time or for a certain number of days during the year


• Limit the number of units an owner could have within the community


• Put a tolerance cap on the number of allowed complaints per year to maintain good behavior to operate


• No weddings or large parties allowed


• Levy fines for unlicensed operators

He also noted that these restrictions could be created as part of the regular permitting process or require a Conditional Use permit. Conditional Use permits require notification of the neighborhood in advance of the rental unit to be permitted and allowed by the city.

Then the microphone was passed around the room and folks talked passionately for quite some time. Represented in the audience were many of the owners of short term rental homes. All of them who spoke shared their desire to only have responsible renters who respected their homes and the neighborhoods they live in, and emphasized their passion for sharing the goodness that is Boulder City with others.

Most had some regular contact with their neighbors about their rental units and their operations running out of their homes. Others may not have directly made their neighbors aware. One woman shared that unfortunately a neighbor of hers was operating at least one short term rental in her neighborhood who had a very negative exchange with that owner.

Others in attendance were against the idea of any such operations being allowed in Boulder City - period. They spoke very passionately that they were not in favor if the idea in general, or expressed concerns about potential increases in crime, or just the changes brought to their neighborhoods by people unknown to them, coming and going.

All should take a few minutes to complete the online survey HERE. The city staff again emphasize that they are genuinely interested in your input and that there is no pre-ordained agenda. This information will be used to formulate recommendations that will be brought to the City Council in the near future.

Both Mayor Joe Hardy and Councilman Steve Walton were in attendance – Dr. Hardy, in particular, we observed, took a ton of notes. This is one where we do not envy the job of the Council – whatever they do will be unpopular with some residents. So, we again encourage all to make their voices heard and as always we’ll keep you posted as things develop!