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The Challenge of Light Pollution in Texas

Light pollution continues to spread across Texas, affecting both rural and urban areas, as detailed in our overview of how Texas communities face rising light pollution. While some municipalities have the authority to pass ordinances regulating outdoor lighting, many unincorporated areas face significant restrictions under state law. In addition, the 2021 legislative session imposed extra limits on municipal authority: now only cities certified as Dark Sky Communities or seeking certification will have the power to regulate outdoor lighting, a topic we’ve raised awareness about during events like DarkSky Day at the Texas Capitol.

This creates a patchwork of protection across the state, leaving many communities without legal tools to preserve their night skies. So how can these communities protect their skies without local legal authority?

What Are Lighting Ordinances and Why Do They Matter?

Lighting ordinances regulate outdoor lighting to reduce glare, light trespass, and skyglow. These regulations provide consistency and enforceable standards that help communities protect public health, safety, wildlife, and our Texas heritage of the night sky.

One of the most thorough examples is the Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 425. It requires that state-funded facilities use cutoff luminaires for fixtures exceeding 1,800 lumens, directing light downward rather than into the sky.

Well-crafted ordinances establish clear requirements for lumens, shielding, and timing, providing municipalities with powerful tools to preserve dark skies and reduce disabling glare while also ensuring necessary illumination for safety and business.

The Legal Barrier in Texas

State law significantly limits what unincorporated areas and most municipalities can do about outdoor lighting. Under the Texas Local Government Code, municipalities derive their regulatory authority from various sources. Home-rule cities exercise broad powers of self-government, while general-law municipalities must look to specific state statutes for their authority.

On the other hand, zoning authority allows cities to regulate building heights, lot coverage, and land use. Outdoor lighting is a reasonable extension of these powers. Cities can also address lighting through building codes, sign regulations, historic preservation requirements, development agreements, and nuisance ordinances.

However, the 2021 Texas Legislature severely restricted municipal authority to regulate outdoor lighting. Currently, only governmental entities already certified as Dark Sky Communities by the DarkSky International, those declaring they are seeking this designation, or entities authorized to regulate outdoor lighting around large observatories or military installations retain this power. Even municipalities with regulatory authority cannot extend it to their extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ).

This results in uneven protection across Texas communities. For example:

• Cities like Dripping Springs, West Lake Hills, and Marfa have comprehensive outdoor lighting codes in place.
• Bexar, and Fort Bend counties have received express permission by the Legislature to regulate outdoor lights, if they wish to.
• The seven counties around McDonald Observatory must regulate outdoor lights by state law.
• Across invisible lines, neighboring unincorporated areas may lack the same authority.

The result is a fragmented landscape where strong protections exist in some places, while others remain vulnerable to unchecked light pollution. And yet, skyglow knows no such borders, meaning that the efforts in one area can be countered by additional light pollution a few miles away.

Consequences of Not Having Ordinances

Without a statewide standard to limit light trespass and glare and without local lighting ordinances, communities face multiple consequences that affect quality of life, environmental health, and economic opportunity:

• Light trespass: Invasive lighting spills onto neighboring properties, disturbing sleep and privacy. The Texas Supreme Court has recognized this as a legitimate nuisance, but without ordinances, property owners must pursue costly individual legal action rather than relying on enforceable community standards.
• Skyglow:  Excess artificial light obscures the stars and our view of the cosmos. Globe at Night’s citizen science data, with over 200,000 observations from 180 countries, reveals the extent of this cultural and scientific loss.
• Wildlife disruption: Nighttime ecosystems are disrupted when artificial light interferes with animal behavior and chronobiology. Studies in Tucson, using over 3,500 Globe at Night observations, have shown how light pollution affects bat movements. Research demonstrates that it can prove fatal for some organisms and interrupt life cycles for others.
• Public safety issues: Glare from poorly aimed or overly bright fixtures increases risks for drivers and pedestrians. Municipalities often justify outdoor lighting regulations, at least in part, on safety grounds.
• Economic loss: Communities miss out on the potential benefits of astrotourism that can boost local economies while wasting an estimated $7 billion per year on unnecessary lighting in the United States. This wasted electricity also releases chemical air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Alternative Solutions Where Ordinances Aren’t Allowed

Communities without ordinance authority can still protect their night skies through creative, grassroots approaches:

• Voluntary Compliance and Education: Residents and businesses can learn about DarkSky’s Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting and adopt them voluntarily.
• Community Programs: Homeowners’ associations and neighborhood associations can also adopt neighboring lighting standards voluntarily, creating consistency within their boundaries even without the power of legal enforcement.
• Recognition Programs: DarkSky Texas initiatives, such as the Be a Star Award, recognize individuals and communities that demonstrate leadership in dark sky protection. This encourages others to follow their example.
• Citizen Science: Globe at Night empowers residents to measure and report sky quality using either naked-eye observations or Sky Quality Meters. Libraries across California and Arizona lend Sky Quality Meters through citizen science kits, and individuals can build these kits themselves.
• Scientific Evidence: Research demonstrates that photons travel tens or hundreds of kilometers before atmospheric scattering, meaning light pollution at any site depends on sources distributed throughout the surrounding territory
• Tools: Your eyes are your best tool to judge poor lighting. Can you see the source of lights on your property from any other property? If so, that light is creating light trespass. Are your lights creating a light dome above your property? Then you are wasting energy and creating skyglow. Use our Light Shield Calculator to determine if your fixtures are properly aimed and shielded.

Success Stories in Texas

Despite legal limitations, some Texas communities without ordinances have achieved meaningful results through voluntary compliance and recognition programs. Several counties, including Bandera, Blanco, Burnet, Comal, Edwards, Gillespie, Hays, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Llano, Mason, Real, and Uvalde, have adopted outdoor lighting resolutions or proclamations, signaling commitment to dark sky protection even without enforceable regulations.

Other cities, such as Buda, Camp Wood, Junction, LaGrange, and Leakey, have taken similar symbolic steps. The Dark Sky District Awards highlight areas of Texas with at least one International Dark Sky Place, demonstrating leadership in protecting the night sky, proving that grassroots action and community commitment can preserve our astronomical heritage, even where state law restricts formal regulation.

Final Thoughts

Texas laws may not apply everywhere, but grassroots action can still protect the stars. Communities in unincorporated areas possess significant power to make a difference through both individual and collective choices.

What can you do today?

• Adjust your home lights according to the 5 Principles: Remove unnecessary lights. Replace unshielded lights with fully-shielded, downward-pointing fixtures in warm colors. And, turn the lights off unless a person is there to use the light.
• Report invasive lighting to the DarkSky Texas database: Document problem lighting in your area to help build the case for better practices and inform future advocacy efforts.
• Encourage neighbors and HOAs to adopt lighting standards by sharing information about the Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting.
• Participate in Globe at Night: Join this international citizen science project by measuring sky brightness in your community. Contact DarkSky Texas to join other Texans in taking observations and reporting them online.

Finally, consider taking the DarkSky Texas Pledge, volunteering your time, or joining our growing network to protect the night sky.

The absence of ordinances does not mean the absence of solutions. Every properly chosen, aimed, and operated light fixture represents a victory for Texas’s night skies. Together, through voluntary action and community commitment, we can preserve the starry heritage that belongs to all Texans.