Austin, TX Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

5 (Exterior Lighting) applies to all zoning districts regardless of roadway type. 2(A) requires building plan applications to include a description of every proposed and existing lighting fixture on the site, including catalog cuts and illustrations showing compliance. 2(B) then lists the specific outdoor lighting applications that must use fully-shielded or full cut-off fixtures: public street and pedestrian lighting, parking lots, pathways, recreational areas, billboards, product display area lighting, and building overhangs and open canopies. Billboards are named explicitly, alongside parking lots and pathways, so the fixture type is not optional or discretionary for sign owners.

2(D) separately allows directional luminaires that are not fully-shielded to illuminate signs and flagpoles, but only if they are aimed to light just the object itself and do not shine onto neighboring properties, roadways, or skyward. 2(E) requires any post-approval change to a fixture or light source to go through the Director for approval before the substitution is installed, with information demonstrating continued compliance with the Subchapter. The current standard traces to Ord. 20060831-068 and was amended by Ord. 20130606-088, which added the applicability tables and figures still in the code today.