Saying he was asked to give Council a report on a meeting the City held with homeowners on May 16, Richard Secrist, Development Services Department, reported that "we've had an issue brewing in some projects and residential areas in the City where homeowners are renting out their condominiums or homes for daily or weekly rentals where City ordinances don't allow it."

Secrist described two primary issues at play. "NRS (Nevada Revised Statutes) says that City Councils in incorporated cities will adopt a two percent room tax on gross receipts. It also says that City Councils will adopt an ordinance defining what transient lodgings are."

"We have a room tax we've been collecting in commercial areas. We haven't been collecting [the tax] in residential zones," Secrist explained. He added that long-term rentals are not part of the issue. "The daily, weekly thing is prohibited under our code."

"We're missing out on the tax revenue we should be collecting. We have an uneven playing field where some are paying the tax and some aren't," he said.

"Options moving forward are to enforce the existing code and don't allow this in residential areas or amend the codes to allow it. We're probably going to come back to Council with some code amendments if for nothing else but to adopt some code definitions that we're supposed

to have but don't," Secrist added.

Saying "this is a tough one," Councilman Rapson said that some people who purchased condos or homes didn't contemplate having "a turnover of neighbors every day or every other day. I'm not saying I'm against it. There are a lot of ramifications. The level playing field is the real deal."

Rapson also discussed the difficulty of enforcing tax payments and code requirements. "Unless you've got a neighbor out there ratting them out, you'll never know."

Secrist told the Council that City Staff intends to have another meeting with affected homeowners and realtors about the issue and bring it back to Council.

Councilman Geno Withelder asked Secrist to target a Council meeting in September for additional discussion of the situation.

Secrist, in response to a question from Councilman Litman, said there were four housing areas that are primarily involved in the issue at the present time: Hawk Ridge Condominiums, the Springs Condominiums, the Classics Condominiums, and one subdivision, Stonehaven Estates in Mesquite Estates. "We know there are a number of individual homes that are advertising online as vacation rentals by owner," he added.

"This is going to have an impact on people who depend on the rental income," Withelder said. He described all the licenses and taxes that are required for business purposes. "We need to consider all this."