Yorba Linda, CA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Yorba Linda's Chapter 18.26 Design Standards opens Section 18.26.050 by stating its guidelines and standards apply in addition to the specific development standards each zoning district already imposes, so the lighting rule layers on top of whatever height, setback or use standards govern a particular parcel. Section 18.26.050(B) then lists a short set of mandatory standards a project must meet, and the second item is the City's shielding rule: lighting has to be stationary, meaning no rotating beacons or search-light style fixtures, and shielded so the light is directed away from adjacent properties, public streets and rights-of-way rather than spilling across a property line or glaring at passing traffic.

The rule sits next to a companion standard requiring that mechanical equipment, storage areas, trash enclosures and utilities be architecturally screened with solid material rather than open fencing such as chain link or wrought iron, which the code specifically says does not count as screening. Read together, the two standards form part of the same design-review checklist the Community Development Director and Planning Commission apply when a project comes in for design review or a conditional use permit: a lighting plan with unshielded floodlights aimed at a neighboring yard, or fixtures that move or flash, does not meet the chapter's baseline and gets flagged during plan check rather than after installation.

The chapter does not set a lumen cap, a curfew for when lights must dim, or a color-temperature limit; its standard is limited to fixture placement and shielding rather than intensity.