
Designated
2014
Category
Dark Sky Community
Address
Texas, USA
Contacts
Ms. Michelle Fischer
Ms. Cindy Luongo Cassidy
Website
Land Area
303 km2
(including ETJ)
Documents
Application
Outdoor Lighting Ordinance
Press Release
Annual Reports
About
A formerly sleepy ranching town settled before the U.S. Civil War, Dripping Springs experienced massive growth in the last decade. The growth has been fueled by the economies of the nearby urban centers of Austin and San Antonio. Alarmed that future development could bring light pollution, concerned residents organized to protect the area’s famously dark night skies.
Approximately 2,300 city-limits residents are subject to the city’s Outdoor Lighting Ordinance. In addition, numerous projects have been built in the city’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction that voluntarily complied with the city’s ordinance and help to preserve the night time sky for the approximately 30,000 people living in the unincorporated neighboring areas.