Jupiter, FL Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Section 27-2592 governs all exterior lighting in town except street lights, and section 27-2592(b) sets the underlying purpose: designing lighting to enhance developments' appearance, protect resident and visitor safety, minimize energy costs, minimize sky glow, and minimize adverse visual impacts on drivers, while barring the use of lighting as advertising or attention-getting display. Section 27-2592(d)(4) turns that intent into a hard shielding rule: any exterior lighting, roof lighting, under-canopy lighting, facade lighting, or lighting that forms a linear pattern must be recessed and shielded, or contain a cutoff luminaire within the fixture, so that the light source itself is never visible from adjacent properties or rights-of-way. Only white light sources, fluorescent, incandescent, metal halide or similar, are allowed; colored decorative lighting falls outside this general standard.

Section 27-2592(e)(3) backs the shielding rule with a design requirement: every development must use a cutoff-type luminaire with less than a 75-degree cutoff angle on all proposed fixtures, verified on the photometric plan submitted with a development application. Fixture height is separately capped at 30 feet in vehicle use areas and 15 feet along pedestrian areas under section 27-2592(d)(1). Because Jupiter is a sea turtle nesting town, section 27-2592(d)(5) makes clear that where this lighting division conflicts with the Palm Beach County Sea Turtle Protection Ordinance, the county's turtle ordinance controls instead, and other agencies such as the state department of transportation may require even lower lighting levels.