Nichols Hills is famous for its holiday lights and for being carefully planned. Both matter for permanent lighting. The city has a detailed outdoor lighting ordinance, adopted in 2023 and based on dark-sky principles, so a year-round roofline system has to be designed to it from the start. Here is a plain-English guide.
A planned city of curving streets and big trees
Developer G. A. Nichols planned Nichols Hills in 1928, and it was incorporated as a municipality in 1929. Today it is a 2.4-square-mile city surrounded by Oklahoma City on three sides and The Village on the north (Oklahoma Historical Society). The Kansas City landscape firm Hare & Hare laid out wide, curving streets that follow the land’s contours instead of a grid, and more than 40,000 trees were planted as the community grew (Library of Congress, HALS OK-41).
For lighting, that means large lots, homes set back on curving frontage, and mature tree canopies that can hide parts of a roofline. We plan around the views that matter: the approach along your street, the drive and the front entry. We don’t try to light every foot of a roof no one can see.
The Nichols Hills outdoor lighting rules, in plain English
Nichols Hills adopted its outdoor lighting regulations in Ordinance No. 1229 (April 11, 2023). They are in Chapter 50, Article II, Division 9 of the city code (Code text via Zoneomics; official code on Municode). The parts that matter most for roofline lighting:
| Rule | What the code says | How we design for it |
|---|---|---|
| Holiday window | Decorative seasonal lighting is exempt from October 30 to February 1, if individual lamps are under 10 watts and 70 lumens (Sec. 50-290(c)(4)). | Holiday color scenes are scheduled inside that window, and we document per-light specs. |
| Color temperature | Outdoor light sources must be warm: 2600 to 3200 K with CRI 80 or higher (Sec. 50-291(g)). | The everyday scene is a warm white set inside that range. |
| Shielding and aim | Light sources must be concealed or shielded from neighbors and the street, and lights directed downward (Sec. 50-291(c) and (d)). | Track placement and lens choice are planned for this. We review it with the City first. |
| Daylight shutoff | Lighting controls must turn outdoor lighting off when there is enough daylight (Sec. 50-291(e)). | Sunrise and sunset schedules in the app. |
| Light trespass | No more than 0.2 footcandle at the property line in single-family districts (Sec. 50-291(b)). | Brightness limits on scenes that face neighbors. |
| Permit | An Outdoor Lighting Permit is required for new lighting whenever an Electrical Permit is required (Sec. 50-499). | We confirm with the City whether your system triggers one. |
What this means for you: holiday scenes run only between October 30 and February 1 look like the best fit, because that is the code’s seasonal exemption. Whether permanently mounted hardware counts as “decorative seasonal lighting” is a question for the City. Year-round use is more restricted. Color scenes outside the seasonal window likely don’t meet the color-temperature rule, and the shielding rules may affect how and where the track can be mounted. Before we quote a Nichols Hills home, we confirm with the City’s Code Official how the code applies to your design. If year-round use won’t work on your house, we’ll tell you. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Some of the metro’s best holiday lights
Visit OKC calls Nichols Hills “better by car because of the literal miles of light displays,” with holiday lights that “rival most professional displays,” and warns that weekend evenings can be bumper-to-bumper (Visit OKC). Permanent lighting gives you a crisp, even roofline every season, with no clips and no takedown, scheduled to come on and go off within the city’s holiday window.
Next steps
Request a free night mockup. For Nichols Hills homes, it shows your everyday scene in code-range warm white and a separate holiday scene. See lighting pricing, the FAQ, or nearby Oklahoma City and Quail Creek.
