Nevada’s biggest cities and counties are changing their master plans to comply with a state law that takes effect this year, but new language alone may not have much tangible impact.
Assembly Bill 96, signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo last year, requires that all local governments that serve more than 100,000 residents incorporate provisions as to how they will work to bolster access to public cooling stations, drinking water, so-called cool building practices that make development more efficient and shade over paved surfaces.
Lombardo previously vetoed a version of the bill in 2024, citing concerns that it could create more barriers to development and his belief that officials were already working on extreme heat adaptation.
In a webinar hosted Wednesday by the volunteer-led Nevada Climate Forum, some of the officials working to implement the bill outlined those efforts. Lombardo has said he signed the bill into law because of the new version’s clearer requirements. Henderson and North Las Vegas did not participate.
Extreme heat has been a hot topic for the region as leaders attempt to address rising numbers of heat-related deaths. According to the Clark County coroner’s office, more than 800 people died because of heat in 2024 and 2025.
Southern Nevada’s local governments have been meeting in a working group to set expectations on how each of them should implement the law, said Robert Burgy, of the Clark County Department of Environment and Sustainability.
They created a report with policy that proposes language for each of the law’s provisions and defines key terms, such as cooling centers — the facilities meant to be resources for communities when the National Weather Service declares an extreme heat warning.
“In order to serve residents in the best way possible, we really thought it would be important to get people together to understand what we’re doing,” Burgy said.
Changes approved at Clark County level
At Wednesday’s Clark County Zoning Commission meeting, members approved small changes to the county master plan, mostly limited to inserting the words “extreme heat” into sections about hazard planning and adding that planting trees is a way to combat the urban heat island effect.
A new policy affirms that the county supports a “network of publicly accessible cooling centers” and educating the public about their availability.
Rachel Lewison, a management analyst with the city of Las Vegas, said officials are committed to their 2050 goal of planting 60,000 trees within city limits. The city’s arborists have been working with an AI algorithm to identify “outlier trees” that could be most at risk of dying from heat stress, Lewison added.
After the passage of the legislation, staff has ensured all city-owned drinking fountains are accessible and dispensing water at a cool temperature, Lewison said.
Some have been critical that brief language changes with little accountability don’t go far enough.
Jackie Spicer, coordinator of the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition, said extreme heat response is perhaps most complicated by a lack of a sustainable funding source.
“We could really do more than talking about it by getting more money behind it,” Spicer said. “‘It’s hard to say that our state is prioritizing something when there’s no funding to back up those words.”
One legislative effort that could help, Spicer said, is a proposal to create a statewide extreme heat office — something that other major cities that struggle with extreme heat have, such as Miami and Phoenix. Assemblymember Cinthia Moore, D-North Las Vegas, has said she is committed to introducing a bill to do that in 2027.
Proponents say that without an official who can own extreme heat response as an issue across jurisdictions, it is often sidelined and not given proper funding or attention.
Lawmakers should look at how well-intentioned heat mitigation efforts like Assembly Bill 96 could include more specific requirements that the public can hold them to, Spicer said.
“Something elected officials could consider for the future is how could we put more teeth and enforcement behind these plans to ensure that we are still growing and developing in a way that aligns with these goals and intention of prioritizing heat mitigation in our community,” Spicer said.
Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.
