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

Tulare County addresses outdoor lighting and night-sky protection primarily through its adopted General Plan 2030 rather than a single 'dark sky' chapter. The Land Use Element contains Policy LU-7.19 (Minimize Lighting Impacts), which directs that lighting in residential areas and along County roadways be designed to prevent artificial lighting from reflecting into adjacent natural or open-space areas unless required for public safety, and Policy LU-7.18 (Lighting), which requires the County to maintain park and recreation-facility lighting so it does not cause nuisance light and glare spillage onto adjoining residential areas. The Land Use Element also commits the County to prepare land-development regulations addressing lighting, landscaping, signage, fencing, glare, and similar performance standards for new development. These policies are carried out through the County Zoning Ordinance (Ordinance No. 352) and project-level conditions of approval administered by the Resource Management Agency, particularly for commercial, industrial, and recreational uses that involve significant outdoor lighting. The result is a glare- and spillover-control approach focused on protecting rural darkness, agricultural land, and open space, rather than a formal International Dark-Sky lighting code with fixture-by-fixture lumen caps. Applicants for discretionary projects should expect lighting and glare conditions tied to these General Plan policies.