Orlando, FL Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)
Key Facts
- Cutoff standard
- ≤2.5% lumens at 90°, ≤10% at 80° from nadir
- Security lighting
- Must also be cutoff fixtures
- Banned lenses
- Sag, convex, and drop lenses
- Floodlighting
- Prohibited except screened industrial use
- Low-wattage exemption
- Decorative lights ≤60 watts
- Alternative compliance
- IDA/IES Model Lighting Ordinance (6-15-2011)
Summary
Orlando requires every outdoor fixture covered by its lighting code, including security lights, to be a "cutoff fixture" that keeps almost all light below the horizontal. Sag lenses, drop lenses and most floodlighting are banned outright, and the City has an alternative Dark-Sky compliance path.
Cutoff fixture means an outdoor light fixture that provides a cutoff (shielding) of the emitted light. The light distribution may not be greater than 2.5% of the luminaire's lumen output at or above 90 degrees vertical from the nadir and not more than 10% of a luminaire's lumen output at or above 80 degrees vertical from nadir. // All fixtures, including security lighting, must be cutoff fixtures... Fixtures may not be tilted towards adjacent properties. Sag lenses, convex lenses, and drop lenses are prohibited. Floodlighting is prohibited except for non-retail industrial uses where the floodlight is internal to the site and cannot be seen from adjacent public rights-of-way and neighboring residential uses or zoning districts.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 92).
Full Breakdown
Sec. 5% of a luminaire's lumen output at or above 90 degrees vertical from the nadir (straight up) and not more than 10% at or above 80 degrees vertical. Sec. " The same subsection bans "[s]ag lenses, convex lenses, and drop lenses," and prohibits floodlighting except for non-retail industrial uses where the floodlight is internal to the site and invisible from adjacent rights-of-way and neighboring residential land. Decorative building-wash lighting may not shine above a parapet or wall top or create glare or spill light.
A narrow exemption in Sec. 405(b) excuses landscape and decorative lights of 60 watts or less from the cutoff-fixture subsection. Sec. 406(b)(4) further limits decorative "acorn-type" parking-lot fixtures to 18 feet in height with a textured lens, frosted phosphor-coated bulb and internal louvered optical system, or a refractor globe meeting the same cutoff standard, effectively the City's dark-sky-styled fixture spec. As an alternative to these prescriptive numbers, Sec. 408 lets the planning official approve a lighting plan that instead conforms to the Joint International Dark-Sky Association and Illuminating Engineering Society Model Lighting Ordinance, dated June 15, 2011.
Violations & Fines
Deploying a non-cutoff fixture, a sag or drop lens, or unauthorized floodlighting on covered development is a violation of Part 2M enforced the same way as any other lighting-plan noncompliance: through the City permitting official's plan review and the standard code-enforcement remediation process, since no lighting plan may be approved that fails Sec. 63.405's fixture standards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Orlando require dark-sky-friendly light fixtures?
Can a business use floodlights in Orlando?
Are small decorative lights exempt from the cutoff-fixture rule?
Is there an alternative to Orlando's specific lighting numbers?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Orlando
Florida rules heatmap·Compare Orlando to another location·View the Florida outdoor lighting overview
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