Calaveras County, CA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Calaveras County's outdoor lighting standard states its purpose is to enhance the character of the county's communities and rural areas by minimizing light pollution, glare, and light trespass, and specifically lists protecting the ability to view the night sky by restricting unnecessary upward light as one of its four objectives. Subsection C bans three categories of exterior lighting outright: searchlights or laser lights used for advertising, mercury vapor lights for any purpose, and low-pressure-sodium lights in residential and commercial zones. Subsection D adds a color-temperature cap that applies to essentially every fixture: outdoor security lighting may not exceed 5,000 Kelvin, and every other outdoor light fixture is capped at 3,500 Kelvin.

The standards apply to all new and replaced outdoor luminaires and to existing adjustable fixtures, which must be redirected to stop glare and spillover, though the county exempts public-safety security lighting, temporary construction and emergency lighting, seasonal holiday displays, fixtures under 60 lumens including solar lights, underwater pool and fountain lights, and temporary agricultural lighting. A permit application involving outdoor lighting must include plans showing fixture location and height, and a description of the lamp type, wattage, lumen output, and Kelvin rating, so compliance can be checked before installation. Because unincorporated territory covers the whole county outside Angels Camp, this single lighting standard reaches virtually every rural property from Arnold to Valley Springs.