“Apartment house” means any building or portion thereof that contains three or more dwelling units and, for the purpose of this code, includes residential condominiums.

“Basement” means that portion of a building which is partly or completely below grade.

“Bathroom” means a room containing plumbing fixtures including a bathtub, toilet or shower.

“Bedroom” means any room or space used or intended to be used for sleeping purposes.

“Building” means a structure which is built or constructed or a portion thereof.

“Camper” means a structure designed to be mounted upon or attached to a motor vehicle which provides facilities for human habitation or for temporary outdoor or recreational lodging and which is five feet or more in overall length and five feet or more in height from its floor to its ceiling when fully extended.

“Common hall or stairway” means a hall or stairway that connects separate dwelling units.

“Congregate residence” is any building or portion thereof that contains facilities for living, sleeping and sanitation, as required by this code, and may include facilities for eating and cooking, for occupancy by other than a family. A congregate residence may be a shelter, convent, monastery, dormitory, fraternity or sorority house, but does not include jails, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels or lodging houses.

“Dwelling unit” means any building or portion thereof which contains living facilities including provisions for sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitation, including not more than one kitchen for not more than one family.

“Dwelling, single-family” means a building, or any part thereof, designed or used for residence purposes by not more than one family and containing one dwelling unit only.

“Dwelling, two-family, or duplex” means a building, or any part thereof, designed or used for residence purposes by not more than two families and containing two dwelling units.

“Dwelling, multiple-family” means a building, or any portion thereof, designed or used as a residence by three or more families and containing three or more dwelling units.

“Efficiency unit” means any room, or portion thereof, having cooking facilities, and used for combination living, dining, and sleeping purposes with a floor area of not more than 320 square feet. An efficiency unit is designed as a separate apartment, not merely as a rooming accommodation. Efficiency units shall be provided with a separate bathroom, meeting the requirements of the building code.

“Equipment” means household appliances, included but not limited to, dishwashers, refrigerators, kitchen stoves, washers and dryers, furnaces, boilers, fireplaces, fuel burning stoves, air-conditioners and hot-water heaters.

“Family” means an individual or two or more persons related by blood or marriage, or two or more persons with functional disabilities, or a group of not more than six persons (excluding servants or resident staff) who need not be related by blood or marriage, living together in a dwelling unit.

“Facility” means something that is built, installed, or established to serve a particular purpose.

“Fixture” means something that is attached, as to a building or part thereof, as a permanent appendage or as a structural part.

“Fully enclosed building” means a structure containing a complete roof and full height side wall assemblies with approved doors or window assemblies constructed to building code requirements.

“Graffiti” means any unauthorized writing, painting, drawing, inscription, figure, design, label, mark, or other defacement that is written, marked, etched, scratched, sprayed, drawn, painted, engraved, adhered to, or otherwise affixed to any surface of a building, building appurtenance, or landscaping, including but not limited to exterior walls, windows, doors, fences, awnings, parapets, exposed structures, and other building surfaces, to the extent that the graffiti was not authorized in advance by the owner or occupant of the property.

“Group R occupancy” means dwelling units, hotels, congregate residences, and lodging houses.

“Guard” means a building component or a system of building components located at or near the open sides of elevated walking surfaces that minimizes the possibility of a fall from the walking surface to a lower level.

“Habitable space” means space in a structure for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. Bathrooms, toilet rooms, closets, halls, storage or utility spaces, and similar areas are not considered habitable spaces.

"Hazard tree" or "Hazardous tree" means any tree, or part thereof, that the City Forester determines is subject to a high probability of failure, due to structural defect or disease, and which poses a potential threat to persons or property in the event of failure. Hazard trees are not in danger of imminent failure.

“Health Officer” means the Clark County Health Officer, his successor, or his authorized representatives or agents.

“Heavy commercial equipment” means any free-standing piece of equipment with a gross vehicle weight of 15,000 pounds (as defined by the manufacturer) or greater that is used typically for the purpose of earth moving or construction related activities and that is typically transported to a job site by a vehicle. The terms shall include, but is not limited to, earth movers, front loaders, excavators, graders, dump trucks, pavers, or cement trucks. The term shall include equipment that is motorized, non-motorized or self-propelled. The term shall exclude heavy commercial equipment that is participating in an ongoing, permitted land development activity.

“Hotel” means any building containing six or more guest rooms intended or designed to be used, or that are used, rented or hired out to be occupied, or that are occupied for sleeping purposes by guests.

“Improved all weather surface” means asphalt, concrete, pavers or other surface approved by the planning official.

“Infestation” means the presence, within or contiguous to a building or premises, of insects, rats, vermin or other pests.

“Inoperable vehicle” means a vehicle that is missing a component such as a wheel(s), engine, battery, transmission, fuel tank, or a vehicle that is not able to move 100 feet in forward and reverse gear under its own power.

“Junk vehicle” means any vehicle certified by a fully or limited commissioned law enforcement officer and meeting at least three of the following criteria:

“Labeled” means a written sign, symbol or message attached to a piece of equipment that proves the equipment has been properly maintained and is capable of safe operation according to government regulations and industry standards.

“Living” means one or more of the following activities, including, but not limited to, eating, sleeping, washing, bathing, or other hygienic activities of any individual who occupies, uses or inhabits any indoor or outdoor space.

“Lodging House” means any building or portion thereof containing not more than five guest rooms where rent is paid in money, goods, labor or otherwise.

“Motor home” means motor vehicles originally designed, reconstructed, or permanently altered to provide facilities for human habitation, which include lodging and cooking or sewage disposal, and is enclosed within a solid body shell with the vehicle.

“Occupancy” means the purpose for which a building or portion that is utilized or inhabited.

“Occupant” means any individual living, or sleeping in a building, or having possession of a building or space therein. Unless otherwise stated, and “occupant” is synonymous with tenant.

“Open storage” means storage of property outside of a fully enclosed building.

“Openable area” means that part of a window, skylight or door which is available for unobstructed ventilation and which opens directly to the outdoors.

“Operator” means any person who has charge, care or control of a structure or premise which is let or offered for occupancy.

“Owner” means any person, agent, operator, firm or corporation having a legal or equitable interest in the property; or recorded in the official records of the state, county or municipality as holding title to the property; or otherwise having control of the property, including tenants, the guardian of the estate of any such person, and the executor or administrator of the estate of such person if ordered to take possession or real property by a court, as well as a bankruptcy trustee.

“Person” means an individual, corporation, partnership or any other group acting as a unit.

“Premise” means a lot, plot or parcel of land including any buildings thereon.

“Property” means both personal and real property.

“Recreational vehicle” means a travel trailer, motor home, camper, camping trailer, tent trailer, or horse trailer that can be used and/or is used as temporary living quarters, is either self-propelled or mounted on or drawn by another vehicle, is transient, and is not permanently affixed to a manufactured/mobile home lot.

“Rooming house” means a building arranged or occupied for lodging, with or without meals, for compensation and not occupied as a one or two-family dwelling unit.

“Rooming unit” means a room or group of rooms in a dormitory, fraternity, sorority, shelter, convent or other similar congregate residence, forming a single habitable unit occupied or intended to be occupied for sleeping or living, but not for cooking purposes.

"Substandard building" means a building that violates any provision of this chapter or other chapters in VMC Title 17 to the extent that the building constitutes an imminent threat to the health, safety or welfare of the building’s occupants or neighboring community. A substandard building is unfit for human habitation.

“System” means equipment forming a network, including but not limited to, heating, electrical, sewage and water systems.

“Tenant” means a person, corporation, partnership or group, whether or not the legal owner of record, occupying a building or portion thereof as a unit.

"Toilet room” means a room containing a water closet or urinal but not a bathtub or shower.

“Ventilation” means the natural or mechanical process of supplying conditioned or unconditioned air to or removing such air from any space.

“Weeds” means those plants designated as class A, B, and C noxious weeds by the state noxious weed control board.

“Yard” means open space on the same lot with a building or a dwelling group, which open space is unoccupied and unobstructed by any structure from the ground upward to the sky. (Ord. M-4085 §1, 2014; Ord. M-4079 §19, 2014; Ord. M-3705 §2, 2005; Ord. M-3637 §1, 2003)