Clark County forum debates draft zoning code changes on density, housing types, amenities and parking

Clark County planning staff summarized a package of draft zoning-code amendments on Oct. 25 aimed at implementing the county’s 2025 comprehensive plan and increasing housing capacity, then opened the draft for detailed feedback from local builders, developers and other participants.

The county presentation said the draft package would revise low-, medium- and high-density residential standards, consolidate several zoning districts, change permitted housing types in some zones, adjust minimum and maximum densities and revise rules for landscaping, open space and on-site amenities. Elizabeth (Project facilitator, Clark County) said the staff are “continuing with this code in parallel with [the 2025 comp plan] to make sure that, the full housing capacity and and other strategies are realized.”

The draft proposes several notable changes. In low-density zones, the county will clarify that the code’s townhouse limit means “4 per structure outright, not 4 per project,” a correction staff said is part of the biannual housekeeping amendments. In consolidated medium- and high-density zones, staff proposed reducing the number of distinct districts from five to three, focusing permitted uses on multifamily types, and increasing both minimum and maximum densities to help meet capacity targets. For the R24 zone staff proposed permitting triplexes and quadplexes on individual tax lots while excluding platted townhouses in that same zone.

Why it matters: County staff told the forum these changes are intended to increase the number of units that can be built and to steer development toward the housing types the county and the Department of Commerce have identified to meet income-band targets under the comp plan. The proposals would also tighten some dimensional controls and simplify standards so multifamily development is governed by a single table of standards in the R zones.

Debate over townhouses, ownership and entry-level housing

A central point of debate was the R24 proposal to allow triplexes and quadplexes but to prohibit townhouse subdivisions. Several developers and builders warned that excluding townhouses could reduce opportunities for entry-level homeownership.

Dan (Developer) told the group that…