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

5 of Subchapter E, the citywide design-standards subchapter of Chapter 25-2, is Austin's general shielded-lighting rule and applies to all zoning districts along every type of roadway, unlike most of Subchapter E's standards, which are limited to non-residential development on specific roadway types. A building plan application must describe every lighting fixture on the site, proposed and existing, including fixtures in adjacent rights-of-way, with catalog cuts or illustrations showing compliance where new fixtures are involved. Subsection B lists seven 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 or open canopies.

Subsection C extends the same fully-shielded or full cut-off standard to lighting used on building facades, limiting such lighting to highlighting specific architectural features; downtown buildings at least 120 feet tall are exempt from that facade rule as long as they carry no trademarked design features above 120 feet. Subsection D allows non-shielded directional luminaires only to illuminate signs and flagpoles, and even then the fixture must be aimed so it lights only the intended object and does not spill onto neighboring properties, roadways, or the night sky.

Any change to an approved fixture or light source after site plan or building plan approval requires a change request to the Director, submitted with information sufficient to confirm continued compliance with the subchapter before the substitution can occur.