Thousand Oaks, CA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

There is no general outdoor-lighting or dark-sky ordinance that applies to ordinary Thousand Oaks homes or businesses. The shielding language exists only inside special use-permit standards for specific facility types. TOMC Sec. 2528(b) sets development conditions for self-storage facilities, which are only permitted as a primary use in the M-1 and M-2 industrial zones with an approved Special Use Permit. Subsection (b)(3)(iii) requires that lighting be integrated into the site design and minimize glare and spillover onto neighboring uses. It then gets specific: full cut-off fixtures and reduced mounting heights are required to control glare and light trespass, no light standard may exceed 14 feet, low-pressure sodium and mercury-vapor lamps are prohibited outright, and a photometric plan is a required part of any application proposing self-storage lighting.

The Community Development Director reviews that photometric plan as part of the Special Use Permit process under Article 18. The city applies the same design philosophy elsewhere on a narrower scale: TOMC Sec. 2524(b)(1), covering backyard residential sports facilities like tennis or pickleball courts, likewise requires full cut-off fixtures, shielding, a 14-foot maximum light-standard height, and bans on low-pressure sodium and mercury-vapor lamps. Outside these two use-specific standards, a homeowner or ordinary commercial property in Thousand Oaks is not subject to a fixture-shielding or lamp-type mandate under the Municipal Code.