Casitas and guest houses
A casita is the project most likely to be designed before anybody checked it was allowed. Setbacks, lot coverage, height, separation from the main house and whether a second dwelling is permitted at all are answers that come from your parcel, not from the neighbourhood.
What this covers.
- 01Setbacks, lot coverage, height and separation confirmed per parcel
- 02Second-dwelling rules checked with the governing authority
- 03Water, sewer, gas and power routed to the structure
- 04Main panel and service capacity reviewed
- 05Architectural review submittal where a committee applies
- 06Plaster and roof detail matched to the main house
Whether you can
comes before what.
Four authorities, four sets of rules
The City of Las Vegas, the City of Henderson, the City of North Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County each set their own rules on detached dwellings, and those rules have been revised more than once in recent years.
We confirm the current position for your address before design starts. Rules that were true for a neighbour three years ago are not a plan.
What makes it a second dwelling
A guest room with a bathroom is one thing. Add a kitchen, a separate entrance and the intention to let somebody live there independently and you are in different territory, with different rules about size, parking and sometimes utilities.
It is worth being explicit about what you actually want the building to do, because the answer changes what can be drawn.
Utilities and the ground between
Water, sewer, gas and power all have to reach the new structure, and the trench between the house and the casita meets the same caliche as everything else below grade here.
The main panel is the other common constraint. A detached building with its own HVAC, kitchen and water heating asks a question of a service sized for one house.
It still has to look like it belongs
In any community with architectural review, a casita is judged against the main house: roof pitch, materials, colour and massing. Matching plaster texture across two structures built thirty years apart is finish work, and it is where a casita either reads as original or reads as added.
The casita, in numbers.
- First question
- What your parcel allows, not what the neighbourhood has
- Authorities
- Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas or Clark County
- Utilities
- Trenching through caliche, plus service capacity at the panel
- Review
- Judged against the main house where a committee applies
- Licences
- NV B‑2 #0091645
NV C‑17 #0092664
NV C‑3 #0092662
Related
Luxury additions & ADUs
Custom home construction
Remodeling and additions in Spring Valley
Talk to us
Tell us what you are building. We will tell you what it involves and where the money usually goes.
Or call (702) 913‑7007 · info@nxgbuilds.com