Municipal Codes & Ordinances

Municipal codes are generally available from one or more of three sources:

• A commercial publisher's website;
• A municipal government website or clerk's office; and/or
• An archive or library in the jurisdiction.

This guide will use the City of Las Vegas as an example.

Step 1: Awareness

There are many ways we become aware of laws. This can happen in conversation with others, through news stories, or in the course of related research. For this example, we're going to research the municipal code at issue in the following news article:

Source: https://www.ktnv.com/news/update-controversial-las-vegas-city-camping-ban-takes-effect

Step 2: Locating the Code Section

Municipal codes are available online at the following sources:

• City of Las Vegas
• MuniCode

In either event, you will end up on the MuniCode platform. Searching topically for the keyword "camping" we gleaned from the news article, we come across the following ordinance:

Clicking the link to Chapter 10.86 above will take you to the full code section below:

There are similar code sections in 10.86.020 through 10.86.040. The credits at the end of the section (Ord. No. 6710, § 1, 11-6-19) indicate they have a common origin in Ordinance No. 6710, which was passed on November 6, 2019. If you wish to research the ordinance and related sources, see the tab on Locating Municipal Ordinances.

If you wish to locate older versions of a code section, see the tab on Historical Municipal Codes.