Jefferson Parish, LA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Sec. 2 sets the parish's outdoor lighting standards, but its parent section, Sec. 3, limits when it applies: the section, as a whole or by subsection, applies only to multiple-family, commercial, industrial, and civic developments where specifically required by a base or overlay zoning district. 2-1, which sets a 25-foot maximum in the CPZ-Ped (Commercial Parkway Overlay Zone, pedestrian) and TCMU (Town Center Mixed Use) districts specifically. Subsection (c) is the outright ban that gives the section its dark-sky character: the installation of any mercury-vapor fixture or lamp is prohibited, with no exception written into the text.

Mercury-vapor lamps are the older, bluish-white fixtures the lighting industry has largely abandoned for higher-efficiency, better-color LED and metal-halide alternatives, and the parish's flat ban forces any site subject to Sec. 3 to use a compliant fixture type from the start. The ban sits alongside subsection (b)'s separate requirement that outdoor illumination not create up light, spill light, or glare toward drivers on public streets or direct light toward residential uses. Site plans for covered commercial, industrial, multi-family, or civic development go through the planning department's review process, and a lighting plan that specifies mercury-vapor fixtures or exceeds the applicable height table would be flagged and rejected before permits issue, rather than caught only after installation.