The deadline
Nevada Assembly Bill 396, enacted as Chapter 365 of the 2025 Statutes of Nevada and approved June 6, 2025, required each county with a population of at least 100,000 and each city with at least 60,000 residents to adopt an ordinance authorising accessory dwelling units. The covered jurisdictions are Clark and Washoe counties and the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Reno and Sparks.
The compliance date was July 1, 2026. Where a covered jurisdiction failed to adopt a compliant ordinance by then, ADUs become authorised by right on any residentially zoned parcel, without local restriction.
That is the inversion that makes the statute unusual: the penalty for not regulating is total deregulation.
What a compliant ordinance may not do
The statute constrains local rules even where a jurisdiction does act. A compliant ordinance may not prohibit kitchens in ADUs, require more than one parking space, impose setbacks beyond those applying to the primary residence, require public street improvements unless necessary for the ADU itself, or prohibit long-term rental of the unit.
Each of those prohibitions targets a specific technique used to permit ADUs nominally while preventing them in practice. Barring kitchens converts an ADU into a bedroom; two parking spaces is often impossible on an existing lot; street-improvement requirements can exceed the construction cost of the unit.
Reno's draft ordinance, as described in a July 2025 staff memorandum, proposed limiting ADU height below the primary structure, a 5,000-square-foot minimum lot size, one on-site parking space and a minimum 28-consecutive-day rental term — the last a bar on short-term rental use rather than on long-term letting.
AB 396 also revised common-interest community provisions, including disclosure of proof of insurance in resale packages and increased fines available to the Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels.
What compliance looked like ahead of the deadline
Reporting from Las Vegas television station FOX5 in the two weeks before the deadline found compliance in progress rather than complete. North Las Vegas told the station its existing code already complied with the state law. The City of Las Vegas had introduced, but not yet finally adopted, an ordinance clarifying setbacks, ADU size, lot sizes and a one-ADU-per-lot limit. Henderson told the station it was still working on the update. Estate Wire could not verify whether Clark County, Washoe County, Reno or Sparks adopted compliant ordinances by July 1, and no post-deadline reporting confirming final compliance outcomes across all seven jurisdictions was located.
Reno's own adopted ADU guide, published by the city's planning department, shows the jurisdiction settled on a 5,000-square-foot minimum lot size, one on-site parking space per unit, a height cap at the primary structure's height, and a limit of one ADU per lot — terms consistent with the draft floated in Reno's July 2025 staff memorandum and within the bounds AB 396 permits.
That is the single fact that determines what this law did in each jurisdiction, and Estate Wire is not asserting final compliance outcomes it has not verified. The statutory text and the deadline are verified from the Nevada Legislature's published statutes.