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Argyle adopts dark‑sky outdoor lighting ordinance, limits color temperature and tightens shielding rules
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Summary
Council adopted a revised outdoor‑lighting ordinance based on Dark Sky Texas guidance limiting outdoor lights to 2,200K, requiring shielding, and including a 10‑year retrofit period; council added language to ensure sports‑field lighting still meets light‑trespass protections.
The Argyle Town Council adopted an outdoor lighting ordinance designed to reduce glare, light trespass and sky glow and to preserve the community’s night sky. Staff said the draft is based on a Dark Sky Texas template but made the town’s standards stricter, capping allowable outdoor lighting color temperature at 2,200 Kelvin and requiring fully shielded fixtures.
Harrison and staff explained the principles behind the ordinance — targeted, low‑level, warm‑colored and controlled lighting — and presented examples and exhibits residents can use to understand acceptable fixtures. The ordinance contains provisions for outdoor sports lighting: the town encouraged community‑friendly certification and included a path to allow certified sports facilities, but council amended the ordinance text so that certified sports lighting must still meet the ordinance’s light‑trespass standard.
Councilmembers discussed contemporary fixtures (flat paddle LED fixtures) and agreed the ordinance requires shielding beyond those designs unless the diode is recessed into the fixture. The ordinance includes a 10‑year phase‑in/retrofit window for existing fixtures, and new permits will have to comply immediately; staff also committed to an education and outreach program to help residents transition to compliant lighting.
After a motion that included a clarifying amendment to section 14.8.4(c)(5) limiting the sports‑lighting exemption to installations that meet the ordinance’s light‑trespass standards, the council approved the ordinance.
