North Las Vegas: Pigs on long list of 11th-hour ordinance proposals

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1999 | 11:11 a.m.

You may want to put that pot-bellied pig on your Christmas list, after all.

An ordinance introduced by the North Las Vegas City Council will make it easier to keep those squealers on single-family, ranch-estate lots.

The pig ordinance is just one of a handful that the city is frantically attempting to pass before the new year. Nine ordinances were introduced at the Nov. 17 council meeting, all set for final vote Dec. 1. Two more ordinances were adopted and go into effect immediately.

Mark Zalaoras, acting city attorney, said that's three to four times the number of ordinances typically introduced at a council meeting.

There's a push to pass new ordinances before the new year because of a law -- AB 486 -- that goes into effect Jan. 1, he said. The law says if a government agency passes any new rule or ordinance that has a direct and significant burden on a business, the city will have to provide a business impact statement.

Such statements could cost the city thousands of dollars if an outside firm is hired to conduct them, Zalaoras said. So the city is passing as many ordinances as quickly as it can to beat the date.

Zalaoras added that the council's Dec. 1 meeting is the last date to introduce an ordinance to be adopted by the end of the year. Once ordinances are approved, they go into effect immediately.

There are eight to 10 more yet to be introduced, he said.

The handful of ordinances are being generated for a number of reasons, he said, among them citizen complaints. The amendment to an existing pig ordinance was sparked by a citizen who was upset that pig ownership was being held to a higher standard than horse stabling.

Currently, one pig can be kept on no smaller than a half-acre lot, while up to two horses can be maintained on as small as a 15,000-square-foot parcel, about third of an acre. The ordinance would change that to 7,500 square feet.

Similarly, an ordinance was introduced that will limit garage sales to three days per quarter, drafted after residents began complaining that homeowners were turning garage sales into daily business operations.

Those two ordinances would not require impact statements if they were passed after Jan. 1, since they will have no impact on outside businesses, Zalaoras said.

But two other ordinances regarding sexually oriented businesses will fall under the new law if they are passed any later than December.

A proposed adult club ordinance would put strict regulations on sexually oriented businesses, requiring would-be club owners to consent to police department and business license checks that would examine their financial background, employment history and criminal records.

A second ordinance would require outcall entertainment operators to get a special license and have an established place of business to operate.

Those ordinances weren't generated by complaints, Zalaoras said, but were introduced in order to get the law on the books before Jan. 1.

North Las Vegas has no regulations on sexually oriented business other than zoning requirements. While there are no outcall entertainers in the city, the ordinance may hinder any future activity, he said.

"If those laws went into effect (after the new year) it would require a business impact statement," he said. The ordinances were modeled after Henderson's ordinances, but slightly modified to suit the city of North Las Vegas.

Val Steed, a spokesman for the Las Vegas city attorney's office, said the city of Las Vegas is not overloaded with passing new ordinances before the law goes into effect.

Steed said a majority of ordinances Las Vegas is currently working on do not affect businesses and would not require an impact statement.

"I don't know if North Las Vegas is being more cautious than we are, or if they are just passing more ordinances regarding businesses," Steed said.

While the pig ordinance will not affect outside businesses, it does affect city resident Gary McCaskill, who has been fighting the city for more than two years over his pet pot-bellied pig.

He was forced to find his pet a new home after code enforcers informed him he was violating the existing ordinance. His pig now stays at a neighbor's lot, who has more green acres.

The ordinance, if approved, will allow him to keep his pig on his single family lot, he said.

North Las Vegas' rules would be less stringent than the county rules. One pot-bellied pig in Clark County is allowed per 13,200 square feet on residential lots.