LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring its downtown to be an “innovation district,” with officials set to test out emerging technologies in the city’s tourism core, FutureStructure reports.

Las Vegas officials are betting that the city’s status as host of the Computer Electronics Show, along with the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s annual auto show, will also make it an easy choice as a location to set up research and testing projects that live outside the boundaries of the conventions.

The city is also competing in the U.S. DOT’s Smart City Challenge along with 76 other cities. Some of the city’s proposed projects for downtown include setting up parking space sensors that will allow the city to show where parking is available in real time, upgrading traffic signals so they can work together to get emergency response vehicles to their destinations more quickly, and monitoring bike-share stations to show how many bicycles are available in each location. For the full story, click here.