Grand Junction, CO Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Chapter 21.11, Outdoor Lighting, opens with a purpose section that is unusually direct about its dark-sky intent: § 21.11.010 lists minimizing light pollution, light trespass and glare, promoting wildlife habitation by limiting light spilling into habitat areas, and protecting and reclaiming the ability to view the night sky among the chapter's stated goals, alongside safe roadways and adequate security lighting. Section 21.11.020 applies that purpose to new development, to any development that increases gross floor area by more than 10%, to use changes requiring added parking, and to all replacement lighting, while exempting small residential fixtures of 100 watts or less installed before April 5, 2010, emergency and traffic-control lighting, airport navigation lighting, seasonal holiday lights, and short festival lighting under 14 days.

The operative dark-sky ban sits in § 21.11.030, which flatly prohibits mercury vapor and low-pressure sodium lighting, searchlights and rotating beacons, laser and strobe sources, any lighting that could interfere with safe vehicle or pedestrian movement, upward-directed lighting that allows spillage into the sky, and tower lighting unless the FAA requires it. Together with § 21.11.050's later color-temperature cap of 5,000 Kelvin and its requirement that fixtures use full cutoff optics after 10:00 p.m., the purpose and prohibition sections make clear that the chapter is designed to cut sky glow citywide, not just to regulate glare between neighboring lots.