Tustin, CA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Section 9271hh, titled Light and Glare, sits in the Specific Provisions of Tustin's Zoning Code (Article 9, Chapter 2, Part 2) and applies to all exterior lighting citywide unless the City specifically exempts a use. Clause (b) sets the operative shielding standard: any outdoor fixture used to light a building, an architectural feature or a landscape feature on private property has to be directed, shielded, or positioned so the light source itself isn't aimed off the property. That's a fixture-design requirement, not a lumen cap; a floodlight aimed at a neighbor's yard or an unshielded post light casting a visible bulb toward the street can be found noncompliant even if its total output is modest.

The standard traces to Ordinance No. 1429 (Section II.48, adopted May 21, 2013), part of the same 2013 recodification that organized the current Zoning Code's Specific Provisions. It works alongside clause (a) of the same section, which sets the broader purpose of minimizing light pollution, trespass and glare, so Community Development Department staff reviewing a design review or building permit application, and Code Enforcement officers responding to a neighbor complaint, look at fixture placement and shielding together rather than at either clause alone. Because the rule is written into the Zoning Code rather than the Building Code, it applies at the site-planning and design-review stage as well as after installation.