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

B of the Land Development Code sets lighting standards for the Timber to Tides Design Overlay (T2TDO). Public and private thoroughfare lighting must match the T2TDO lighting concepts developed by VHB and shown in Figure 45-35, or be separately approved by the Nassau County Planning Director, and every fixture style is required to combine dark-sky friendly shielding with directional LED bulbs to reduce light pollution, kept consistent along the length of each thoroughfare. Building-facade lighting has to complement those same T2TDO lighting concepts wherever a building fronts a public thoroughfare or sits within an activity center.

Bollards are required along pedestrian paths anywhere street lighting has not already been installed, to protect people walking after dark. Lighting for parking lots and public plazas is limited to the minimum needed for safety and visibility, arranged so it does not spill onto public thoroughfares or intrude on the privacy of neighboring building occupants. 7 repeats the shielding and directional-bulb mandate as a blanket requirement for all lighting in the overlay and specifically requires an approved fixture as specified by Dark Sky International, the nonprofit that certifies dark-sky compliant fixtures.

The article also directs designers to the IES Lighting Handbook, published by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, as the technical guide for testing parking-facility and development lighting, and states these T2TDO lighting provisions control over the general Land Development Code wherever the two conflict.