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

The City of Westminster does not have a dedicated "dark sky" lighting ordinance with numeric lumen caps, color-temperature limits, or full-cutoff fixture mandates of the kind some California cities adopt. Instead, outdoor lighting is addressed within the Zoning Code's general site-planning and development standards (Title 17, Article 3, including the Site Planning and General Development Standards chapters), which recognize that outdoor lighting can have a negative visual or psychological effect, especially where residential uses abut or are near commercial, office, or industrial areas, and require that lighting placement, illumination, and shielding comply with the applicable provisions of the Westminster Municipal Code. Comprehensive technical standards for outdoor lighting—controls, shut-off, motion sensing, and shielding—come from the statewide California Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Title 24, Part 6, including Section 130.2, Outdoor Lighting Controls and Equipment), which the City's Building Division enforces on new and altered construction. There is no countywide Orange County lighting rule that supersedes the city standards inside the incorporated city. Residents seeking relief from a neighbor's lighting that is more of a nuisance than a code matter may also look to the City's general nuisance provisions (Chapter 8.20). For specific projects, the Planning Division applies the zoning site-planning standards and Building applies Title 24.