Cathedral City, CA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Chapter 9.89 of the Cathedral City zoning title sets outdoor lighting standards. Section 9.89.010 states the purpose: keep ambient lighting as low as possible, maintain dark skies, and provide good visibility with minimum glare and spillage onto other properties or into the sky. The directional rule appears in Section 9.89.110, the off-street parking lighting standard. It sets one foot candle as the minimum illumination across the parking surface, caps light poles and similar freestanding structures at eighteen feet, and says any illumination, including security lighting, must be directed away from adjoining properties and public rights-of-way.

Shielding backs that up. Section 9.89.050 and Table A require fully shielded fixtures for high pressure sodium, metal halide, fluorescent, quartz, mercury vapor and incandescent lamps over 160 watts, and partial shielding for incandescent lamps of 160 watts or less. Fully shielded means light rays are projected below a horizontal plane running through the lowest point on the fixture where light is emitted. Section 9.89.060 prohibits unshielded outdoor illumination of any building, landscaping or signing, bans new mercury vapor fixtures, and bans lighting inside transparent or translucent awnings.

Fixture installers apply to the city planner under Section 9.89.070 unless the lights are incandescent at 160 watts or less. The application includes plans showing location and height of fixtures and a description of shielding and filtering, and the planner issues a permit once compliance is shown. Recreational facilities are exempt except they must meet Table A shielding and cannot be illuminated by nonconforming means after ten p.m. except to conclude an event in progress. Section 9.89.090 allows special temporary exemptions of not more than thirty days on findings of extreme geographic or geometric conditions.

Section 9.89.120 makes a violation of Sections 9.89.050, 9.89.060, 9.89.070(D) or 9.89.110 a public nuisance under Chapter 13.80.