The Carson City Board of Supervisors advanced a strict new ordinance regulating short-term rentals (STRs) on Thursday, adopting stringent rules on gathering sizes, sanitation, and licensing while avoiding complex conditional use permitting.
Mayor Lori Bagwell opened the discussion with a notice for current and prospective operators: the city assessor is actively identifying advertised STRs to increase their property taxes.
“The assessor has let me know that they have been reviewing anyone with a short-term rental in advertising, and they are then putting those property at the higher rate for property taxes,” Bagwell said. “Instead of getting 3% as a residential, you move to the maximum of the 8%.”
Zoning and Permitting
When debating how STRs should be zoned and permitted, the board ultimately leaned toward making them a “permitted use” rather than requiring a special use permit, which means every property owner wishing to rent out an STR would need to apply for and be granted permission, and would require neighbors to be officially notified before an STR opens.
Supervisor Curt Horton pushed for an efficient process over complicated zoning battles.
“Let’s not complicate it, let’s keep it simple,” Horton said. “Put it in title four, issue a business license, have the hearing officer review it, and minimize the notification area to what is reasonable, period.”
The board decided STRs will not be allowed in apartment buildings, industrial zones, or public zoning districts, and the property must be a lawfully established dwelling at the time of the application.
Strict Limits on Events and Commercial Activity
In an attempt to prevent nuisance complaints, the board set firm limits on who can occupy an STR and what they can do.
Gathering sizes will be capped at double the home’s maximum sleeping occupancy (which is calculated at two people per bedroom), quiet hours will begin at 9:00 p.m., and all commercial activities will be banned.
Deputy District Attorney Dan Yu warned that the commercial activity ban would encompass profit-driven content creation.
“You’ve got a lot of TikTokers these days, right? You got a lot of people who post videos on YouTube,” he said. “They do it for clicks and they get advertisement revenue from the number of viewings, and that could constitute, quote-unquote, a commercial activity.”
Supervisors debated how to prohibit individuals using the STRs to run business activity, whether it might be a “traveling art show” — in which artists would bring artwork to the house, host an event, and sell the art from it — or, as Supervisor Stacey Giomi framed it, if someone wanted to use the home to “make a spicy movie” clarifying that he “was not referring to jalapeños.”
They determined that, similar to all other business conducted in the city, any for-profit business transaction requires a business license, and any business activity that would require a license would be prohibited within STRs.
The Hot Tub Debate
One of the meeting’s most colorful debates centered on whether STR swimming pools and hot tubs should be regulated like commercial hotel amenities.
Supervisor Mo White said the city needs strict oversight.
“I believe swimming pools and hot tubs in a short-term rental should be operated the same way they are in a motel,” White stated. “If I want to dump my friends and little kids of my own making in my filthy, nasty hot tub, that’s one thing, but we’re talking about a commercial open arrangement where you don’t know who jumped in there last time.”
Health and Human Services Director Jeanne Freeman intervened to offer a compromise, suggesting a mandatory health protocol that operators must follow rather than requiring the city to perform ongoing commercial inspections.
“The idea behind this is submitting a protocol that’s reviewed that has regulations on the frequency of which they would change the water, that they’re testing it for chemical balance to make sure that we’re not having conditions that would create situations where somebody might go away with a rash,” Freeman said.
The board agreed that STR owners will be required to keep an on-site maintenance log proving they are following the health department’s sanitization rules.
Supervisors also stated that they would live with the STRs for a couple years, gather data on what’s working, what the violations are, and that they could revisit it to refine or tune requirements as needed.
Public Comment
Resident Denny French, the sole public commenter on the agenda item, expressed concern that the community is largely unaware of the impending rules and the massive tax implications.
“My concern is the enforcement,” French said, adding that “individuals involved seem totally unaware of any of this process going on now.”
French urged the city to increase community outreach, adding, “I just heard today the first time that the property tax differential will be taken in…something’s missing as far as public understanding.”
View the full meeting here:
