Arlington, TX Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

3 sets the pedestrian lighting standard for new development and redevelopment citywide under the UDC rewrite (Ord. 26-019, effective June 1, 2025). New projects must provide pedestrian lights within the sidewalk's Furnishing Zone, positioned approximately at the midpoint between street trees, spaced a maximum of 75 feet apart, and set roughly 4 feet behind the face of curb or as otherwise approved by the city, coordinated with Oncor's utility requirements. The certification requirement is explicit: pedestrian lighting must be certified by Darksky International, the organization behind the internationally recognized dark-sky fixture standard for shielded, non-glare outdoor lighting.

Height is separately capped at 16 feet, though a pedestrian fixture may share a support pole with taller street lighting. The code also allows the city to layer on more specific lamp and post standards for particular areas through a unified Streetscape Design Manual. Because this standard sits inside the Street & Sidewalk Standards article, it binds pedestrian-scale fixtures that a developer installs along public sidewalks as part of a new project; it does not, on its face, regulate a homeowner's private porch light, floodlight, or backyard fixture.