York County, SC Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

884, Light Fixtures, is York County's core dark-sky shielding rule. Subsection (A) requires any light fixture, including those mounted on poles and buildings and any architectural, display or decorative lighting, to be fully shielded so its source is completely concealed inside opaque housing and cannot be seen from any street. Subsection (B) requires fixtures to be mounted so the cone of light is not aimed at any lot line. Only incandescent, fluorescent, metal halide, LED or mercury vapor sources may be used, and Subsection (C) requires every fixture and light source on a site to match, so a property cannot mix warm and cool lighting types.

Subsection (D) restricts color to white or off-white light only. Wall packs get their own limits under Subsection (E): they may light secondary building entrances for safety but not to draw attention to the building or serve as general site lighting, must be fully shielded with a true cutoff bulb or concealed source, must point light vertically downward, and are capped at 1,000 lumens or less; a wall pack visible from off the site at all is prohibited outright. 882 exempts street and sidewalk lighting, sign lighting, seasonal lighting, single-family, single-family attached and duplex dwellings, and utility-owned streetlights from Part 4, but only if the fixture is fully shielded.

886 caps sports-field and performance-area lighting fixtures at 80 feet in height with a mandatory glare-control package and an operating cutoff of one hour after the game or event ends.