San Luis Obispo County, CA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

060 of the county's Land Use Ordinance governs all outdoor night-lighting installed after the section's effective date, except street lights in public rights-of-way and lighting on Agriculture-category parcels. No land use permit is required to install a fixture, though Title 19 (the Building and Construction Ordinance) may still require an electrical permit. Subsection D splits shielding into two cases. Ground-illuminating lights (anything but open flame from combusted gas or fuel) must be shielded from above so the shield's edge sits level with or below the light source's lowest edge; once a fixture is mounted higher than eight feet, the shielding must extend far enough below that edge to block the bulb itself from view of any residence within 1,000 feet.

Lights used to accent building walls, signs, flags, architectural features or landscaping must be shielded so the source is not directly visible from off-site at all. Subsection E caps free-standing outdoor fixtures at the height of the tallest building on the site, and Subsection F requires street lighting to be designed so no light crosses the horizontal plane at the fixture. The Department of Planning and Building enforces the standard through the land use permit review process for new development and can require retrofitting of a nonconforming fixture.