Clark County's 2,500-Foot STR Spacing Rule Locks Out Most New Hosts

If you want a new short-term rental permit in unincorporated Clark County, you need to find a home that sits more than 2,500 feet from every other licensed STR and more than 2,500 feet from any resort hotel. In a county built around the Las Vegas Strip, that spacing rule alone eliminates the vast majority of properties from eligibility before an application is ever filed.

The Rule That Quietly Kills Most Applications

Clark County's short-term rental ordinance, approved by the Board of County Commissioners on June 21, 2022 and codified as Chapter 7.100 of the county code, is one of the strictest STR frameworks in the country. The distance requirement is its sharpest edge. A prospective host cannot simply find a house and apply. They have to confirm that no other licensed STR sits within a roughly half-mile radius, and that no resort hotel does either. In dense residential corridors near the Strip, that combination of buffers makes legal operation functionally impossible for most properties.

The county layered a second cap on top of the spacing rule: total permits are limited to roughly one percent of housing units in any given area. As of early 2026, available permit slots were already scarce. The spacing rule and the cap work together to keep the licensed STR supply extremely tight, which is exactly what the county intended when it wrote the ordinance.

A Court Paused Enforcement, But the Rules Did Not Go Away

Here is where 2026 gets complicated. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in December 2025 that stopped Clark County from enforcing its license requirement and penalty structure. For hosts currently operating without a permit, that might feel like a reprieve. It is not a safe harbor.

The ordinance still exists. The county is actively appealing the injunction. If the appeal succeeds, enforcement returns, and any host who used the pause to start or expand an unlicensed operation will be exposed to the full penalty structure the moment the injunction lifts. Treating a court-ordered pause as a permanent policy change is a gamble with real money on the table.

What the License Actually Requires

For hosts who do qualify under the spacing and cap rules, the licensing process is substantial. The county treats a short-term rental as a commercial business, which means operators need both a short-term rental permit and a separate business license. Before a permit issues, the property must pass a safety inspection covering smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, exits, and pool barriers. Hosts must also carry liability insurance and designate a local responsible party who can respond to complaints and reach the property at any hour.

Application and annual renewal fees apply, and the county requires hosts to collect and remit transient lodging tax on every booking, the same room tax that hotels charge. That tax obligation is entirely separate from the licensing dispute and has not been touched by the injunction. Hosts who are renting right now, with or without a permit, still owe lodging tax, and the county and state can pursue unpaid amounts regardless of how the permit litigation resolves.

What Hosts Should Do Right Now

The practical checklist for any host or prospective host in unincorporated Clark County looks like this:

• Verify the spacing. Before spending time or money on an application, confirm that no other licensed STR and no resort hotel sits within 2,500 feet of the property. The county's licensing office can help confirm this.
• Do not assume the injunction is permanent. The county is appealing. Operate as if enforcement could return on short notice, because it can.
• Keep paying lodging tax. The injunction covers licensing and penalties, not tax collection. Unpaid transient lodging tax accrues interest and penalties and is collectible independent of the permit fight.
• Track the appeal. The outcome of the county's appeal will determine whether the full ordinance, including the spacing rule and the cap, snaps back into active enforcement. This case is still moving.

The bottom line for anyone weighing a short-term rental in Clark County: the rules are strict, the available locations are few, and the legal pause is temporary. The 2,500-foot spacing requirement did not get enjoined. It is still the law, and it still governs where any future permit can legally be issued.

For the complete Clark County compliance guide including tax calculator, checklist, and daily monitoring, see Clark County, NV STR Regulations.