Ordinance a surprise to nonprofit groups

Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 | 8:23 a.m.

Las Vegas recently began enforcing a four-year-old ordinance requiring nonprofit organizations to have business licenses, putting some at odds with zoning regulations in their neighborhoods and facing uncertain futures.

A Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Department employee realized this fall that the ordinance had not been enforced as dozens of nonprofit organizations began preparing annual applications for city-managed federal funds, department spokeswoman Mary Ann Price said.

The requirement, in place since 2001, was then made part of the application process, she said. The city found that many of those applying did not have licenses and operated in areas not zoned for businesses.

About 15 programs providing services ranging from child care to food for the homeless are affected. The groups either must obtain exceptions to existing zoning regulations, move to a new location or shut their doors.

Without the licenses, the organizations cannot apply for the federal grants, which last year totaled $5.8 million. Price said this year's total was not available.

Documents obtained by the Sun show that the move caught many local nonprofit organizations off guard.

"They weren't aware of it (the ordinance) before -- (and) have no excuse for that," Price said.

According to notes the city supplied from a conversation between Eddie Dichter of the Planning Department and Jamie Weller of Lutheran Social Services, city employees who handle business licensing told Weller last year that she did not need such a license.

Price said she "didn't know where the confusion came from."

Lutheran Social Services runs programs that, among other things, provide food and clothing for the poor and bus tickets out of town for the homeless.

A letter from Family Promise, another nonprofit organization, noted that it has operated in the same neighborhood for nine years without any problems from the city.

Terry Lindemann, network director for the organization -- the only one in the valley that allows homeless families to stay together in temporary housing -- said in the same letter that she was sent to several city departments, only to be told that her agency's Fourth Street location was in an area not zoned for that purpose.

Lindemann said she has not received an answer to her Sept. 27 letter asking the planning and zoning office how her agency should proceed.

Other organizations with unresolved licensing situations include the Center for Independent Living, an organization that gives job and addiction counseling, and the Nevada Association of Latin Americans, which offers child care to low-income families, according to a list provided by the city.

Price said the city is "trying to work out the details and doing everything possible ... in a good faith effort" to help the organizations resolve the problem.

Officials at several nonprofit organization affected by the city's push for business licenses said they didn't want to comment on their situations because they were afraid the city would retaliate against them by denying them exceptions to zoning regulations.

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at timothy@lasvegassun.com.