Waco, TX Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

The Brazos River Corridor (BRC) district is a zoning overlay that layers additional development standards, including outdoor lighting rules, on top of whatever base R, O, C, or M district a property carries under Section 28-798; a lot in the BRC has to satisfy both its base-district zoning and the corridor's design standards. Section 28-809, the division's purpose statement, explains that lighting in the corridor is meant to provide a safe, secure atmosphere while remaining "unobtrusive to surrounding property," and lighting may be required for parking areas, walks and drives that stay in use after dark.

1 then sets the mechanics: supports and fixtures must be compatible with the area's character, wood utility poles are barred (though specially designed wood fixtures may be considered), and all wiring must run underground. Subsection (e) is the shielding rule: fixtures must be shielded or built so that no direct light is emitted upward, either straight from the lamp or indirectly off the fixture, above the fixture's 90-degree cutoff angle. That full-cutoff design keeps light off the sky and out of the corridor's tree canopy and waterway, and it applies on top of the base zoning code, which does not otherwise regulate light direction outside this overlay.

The rule was readopted as part of the 2023 overhaul of Division 23 (Ord. No. 2023-431, June 6, 2023), which replaced the corridor's earlier lighting language in its entirety.