LV targets front-yard car lots

Dan Kulin

Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005 | 7:47 a.m.

Frustrated with seeing front yards and driveways turned into used car lots, Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese is pushing for new limits on how many vehicles can be offered for sale in front of homes.

"It just really irks me because anyone who wants to do business in the city needs to have a license, and it degrades the neighborhood, it takes it down," Reese said.

The councilman is proposing changes to city law that, if approved, would allow only one vehicle to be sold at a time from someone's home, and a resident could only sell two vehicles from their home in any 12-month period.

Currently, state law allows a person to sell up to three vehicles a year without getting a dealer's license.

When city enforcement officials are alerted to someone possibly trying to run a used car dealership from a home, they check to see if the resident owns the vehicles or is continuously selling vehicles.

But absent a zoning infraction -- car dealerships are not allowed in residentially zoned areas -- city laws do not address the sale of vehicles from someone's residence.

Reese's proposed changes would also require that the vehicles being sold from a home be owned by the resident, have a vehicle identification number clearly visible and not be parked in a yard.

The proposed changes were read into the record during Wednesday's City Council meeting.

There was no public discussion.

The council is expected to vote on the changes Nov. 2.

The city also has been dealing with a number of people who use vacant lots as makeshift car lots, parking their vehicles there with for-sale written across the windshield.

City laws already prohibit the sale of vehicles from vacant lots.

Parking enforcement officials have stepped up their efforts in recent months, handing out more parking tickets and towing eight vehicles since the end of July, officials said.