Clark County to streamline special events — after this year’s F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix

LAS VEGAS ( KLAS ) — The Clark County Commission moved ahead with creating a brand new department just to deal with events such as the F1 race, Super Bowls, marathon races and other special events, voting 7-0 to approve a new ordinance on Thursday.

A Sports and Special Events Department will not be in place until 2025, after this year’s F1 race runs Nov. 21-23. Business owners who said they lost millions of dollars during the 2023 race showed up to object to the ordinance, but they continued to hammer the county on last year’s race and commissioners stopped comments unless they were directly related to the new ordinance.

The ordinance includes many requirements that events must meet before they are approved, and give them a central place to start with their event proposals. Among the requirements: A complete conceptual traffic management plan. That’s been a persistent complaint regarding the F1 race.

Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick said the ordinance is needed before the county can change the way it handles F1 — or any major event. She emphasized that she began working on the ordinance in 2019 because there was a need to do things a better way. The ordinance effectively modernizes event handling.

Criticism that the ordinance was only there to help Strip resorts make more money while leaving small businesses out in the cold rankled Kirkpatrick. She said she found a “hodgepodge” of approval processes that were being manipulated by event promoters.

The ordinance creates a central department to put an approval and review process into place. That will eliminate old processes that didn’t require coordination and sometimes resulted in events being shopped to different departments for approval.

Clark County Director of Business Licensing Vincent Queano said the ordinance specifies seven conditions that could trigger a public hearing — including a previous failure by the event to comply with event requirements:

• The Special Event will require a road closure of the Las Vegas Boulevard and/or the Special Event will have significant impact on the roadways as determined by the Director.
• The Special Event will require significant resources from any Clark County Departmet or other agency, including but not limited to the Las Vegas Metroopolitan Police Department and the Southern Nevada Health District.
• The Special Event estimates the attendance of more than 15,000 participants, attendees, or spectators at one time.
• The Special Event has the potential to cause disorder, disturbances, excessive loitering, uuisances, or other activities which endanger the health or safetyl of the patrons or disrupt the peace or order of the neightborhood.
• The Special Event has multiple activations across Clark County.
• The Special Event and/or the Event Organizer has had previous compliance issues associated with events; or
• Any other reason the Board determines the applicant needs to show cause as to why the Special Event should not be denied.

The county can also require a review — a “Post-event Worksheet” — as a condition of approval for an event.

Not all events are subject to the department’s approval. For example, Raiders and Golden Knights games, concerts at established arenas and conventions are not regarded as special events under the ordinance.

But something like the the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas marathon qualifies, requireing the Strip to be shut down. Super Bowl LVIII had about 200 associated activations around the valley, and that wide impact would fall under the purview of the new department.

As businesses including Battista’s Hole in the Wall, Ferraro’s Ristorante, Ellis Island Hotel and Casino & Brewery lined up to object to the bill, it was clear that scars remain from road closures and other disruptions during the 2023 F1 race. Those businesses were on hand two weeks ago when the county listened to their stories.

Randy Markin, owner of Battista’s Hole in the Wall Italian restaurant, said as the 2024 race nears, it’s “100 days of unknown.” The ordinance was the latest platform for businesses to question commissioners about recovering the money they lost when a temporary bridge was erected over Flamingo Road, blocking access to their businesses.

Lisa Mayo-DeRiso said the new ordinance doesn’t address what has already happened to businesses, and there’s no mention of reimbursements. “I urge you to not pass this ordinance until these issues are addressed,” she said.

Commissioners directed business owners to wait for a public comment period at the end of the meeting so they could proceed with discussing the ordinance. Their comments — while not the first time they have been heard — came after commissioners passed the ordinance. A petition on Change.org to stop the 2024 race has gathered more than 3,100 signatures since it was started on May 3.

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