Citrus County, FL Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

LDC § 3426(A)(9), Site Lighting, governs exterior lighting for development inside the Cardinal Street Interchange Management Area's CMU District, adopted by Ordinance 2026-A16 on June 22, 2026. Subsection (a) requires nighttime lighting for public streets, sidewalks, common areas, mixed-use entrances, and the entrances, parking, loading areas and pedestrian facilities of commercial, office, institutional and utility developments, directing lighting to otherwise follow LDC Chapter 3, Sections 3740 and 3745, unless the CMU standards say otherwise. Subsection (c) caps pole height at 16 feet including the base for pedestrian areas and 35 feet including the base everywhere else; a taller pole needs PUD approval consistent with the district's intent.

Subsection (d), the dark-sky fixture rule quoted above, requires every exterior fixture to be a concealed-source, full-cutoff or cutoff design meeting International Dark Sky Association criteria, with matching fixture styles across the site. outside business hours unless run on an automated timer (f)(v), motion-activated fixtures cannot trigger from movement beyond the property line (f)(vi), and under-canopy lighting is capped at a 20 foot-candle average with no reading above 30 foot-candles (f)(vii). Because these standards sit inside the CMU District's site-development chapter, they apply only to new development and redevelopment reviewed by the Land Development Division within the Cardinal Street IMA, not to lighting countywide.