Home zoning should be local issue

When an elderly care home was proposed for the upscale Lakeview subdivision in northwest Carson City more than a year ago, some homeowners there hit the roof because they believed group homes weren't allowed.

That's what it said in their covenants and restrictions, anyway. But that's not what state law said. And if the matter ever had gone to the Carson City Board of Supervisors, it didn't look like there was much that council could do, either.

The controversy was resolved only because the property owner dropped her plans. The issue of which might prevail - the homeowners' association rules or state law - never got decided.

Now, Carson City will ask the Nevada Legislature to give back a piece of control to city government. Legislation to be proposed by Carson officials would give local zoning codes the power to regulate where group homes are allowed.

Zoning issues should be in the hands of city officials, so it's a worthy piece of legislation. The tricky part, though, will come when Carson City planners sit down to try to write an ordinance defining group homes and where they might be allowed.

In our opinion, group homes shouldn't necessarily be confined to commercial or multi-residential zones. When the definition of a group home could range anywhere from a halfway house for recovering drug addicts to a foster family's residence, there is a lot of latitude for interpretation.

Often, planning codes require such facilities to get a "special use permit" for a residential area, which means they are reviewed individually and can be held to higher standards and tougher restrictions than in other zones.

However, that opens the door to subjectivity - and controversy. We're not sure such a process would have done anything to solve the Lakeview argument, except to place city supervisors in the path of a difficult decision (and potential lawsuit, either way).

Such decisions, nevertheless, are best made at the local level. The Legislature should place that authority in supervisors' hands by closing the existing loophole.