Palm Desert, CA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Chapter 24.16 is the Palm Desert outdoor lighting chapter, written to minimize light pollution and light trespass and preserve the night-time environment (§ 24.16.010). The shielding rule is § 24.16.015(A): every luminaire with total lamp mean lumens above four thousand must be full-cutoff type. The definitions in § 24.16.060 describe a full-cutoff fixture as one shielded or built so that all light rays are projected below a horizontal plane through the lowest point from which light is emitted, and they add that drop or sag lensed fixtures are not allowed.

Small fixtures get limited relief when the lamp source is hidden from direct view by louvers or an opaque lens. Pedestrian scale post top luminaires under six thousand lamp lumens, low level lighting such as bollards and step lights under three thousand five hundred, and residential wall-mounted luminaires under one thousand eight hundred can be non-cutoff.

Height and output are capped by zone. Residential zones: a maximum of eighteen feet, lamp lumens of fifteen thousand or less, and full-cutoff features. Commercial zones: a maximum of thirty feet, one hundred thirty thousand lumens or less, full-cutoff fixtures. Walkway luminaires mount no higher than ten feet above grade, and sports court poles top out at thirty feet with full-cutoff optics. Color correlated temperature for all outdoor lighting is limited to four thousand Kelvin. High pressure sodium lamps are prohibited, low pressure sodium lighting is not approved, and the definitions state that mercury lamps are not approved in the city.

Hillside lighting is stricter: LED sources with glare shields, no luminaire above sixteen thousand lamp lumens, and all fixtures off no later than ten p.m. (§ 24.16.040(I)). Fixtures legally installed before the chapter took effect are exempt until reconstructed or replaced, holiday lights can go up forty-five days before the holiday and come down thirty days after, and flag lighting required by law is exempt (§ 24.16.050).