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

Trinity County has not adopted a comprehensive dark-sky or outdoor-lighting ordinance regulating residential fixture shielding or color temperature countywide, even though the county sits beside the Trinity Alps Wilderness and the Shasta-Trinity National Forest with naturally dark skies. The closest general control in the county Zoning Code is the glare performance standard. Under the draft Zoning Code Section 17.50.050(G) (Public Review Draft, April 2026), carried from adopted Section 17.30.100(H), no use, activity, or process may produce direct or reflected glare - whether from flood lights or other sources - so as to be visible from any property line and adjacent parcel, and sky-reflected glare must be reasonably controlled so it does not create a nuisance or interfere with neighboring property. Beyond that general rule, lighting controls appear only for specific land uses: cannabis cultivation lighting must be downcast, shielded, or screened to keep light from emanating off-site or into the sky; outdoor lighting for agritourism uses must be hooded and directed away from roads and neighboring parcels; certain conditional uses must shield and direct new exterior lighting so no direct light falls outside the parcel line; and telecommunications facilities must keep lighting downward-directed and shielded. There is no county requirement for warm color temperatures or full-cutoff fixtures on ordinary homes. Statewide, California's Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards regulate outdoor lighting power and controls for new permitted construction.