2 county-level rules, plus city-specific rules for 1 city in Oakland County, Michigan.
Verified from official government sources
Oakland County has no countywide dark-sky ordinance, but most of its suburbs regulate outdoor lighting through their zoning or nuisance codes. Farmington Hills (Chapter 17, Section 17-106) is the strictest: residential exterior lights are capped at 1,400 lumens per fixture (about a 100-watt incandescent equivalent), fixtures must be fully shielded with opaque material on top and all sides, and the light source must be parallel to the horizontal plane of the area lit. Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield (Ordinance C-728), Birmingham, and Bloomfield Township all require full-cutoff fixtures for non-residential properties and prohibit lights that produce glare onto adjacent property or any public street. Michigan does not have a statewide dark-sky law, but state-park lighting on Oakland County's lakes is managed by the DNR's published lighting guidance.
City of Farmington Hills Code §17-106 (Chapter 17 — Nuisance), Ordinance C-7-2013
Light diffusing media shall be totally shielded with opaque material on the top and all sides, and the light source shall be parallel to the horizontal plane of the area to be lighted. Exterior light sources with a lamp or lamps rated at a total of not more than fourteen hundred (1400) lumens are permitted, except for flood or spotlights and illumination at building entrances, as permitted in t...
Light trespass — illumination crossing a property line and falling on a neighbor's land — is regulated at the city/township level in Oakland County. Farmington Hills bans light trespass outright under Code §17-106 and treats it as a public nuisance. Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham, West Bloomfield, and Bloomfield Township limit spillover at a residential property line to 0.5 footcandle (measured at ground level); spillover into non-residential property is typically capped at 1.0 footcandle. Violations are municipal civil infractions, usually $100–$500 per occurrence. The cited Michigan common-law nuisance doctrine (Adkins v. Thomas Solvent and progeny) provides an additional private-action remedy when light interferes with the reasonable enjoyment of a neighbor's property.
City of Farmington Hills Code §17-106 (Chapter 17 — Nuisance), Ordinance C-7-2013
All outdoor light fixtures must be installed and maintained in a manner that does not permit light trespass beyond the property boundary. Light trespass is defined as light that falls beyond the property it is intended to illuminate. All façade lighting must be restricted to the façade surface and may only be used to highlight specific architectural features, with light trespass prohibited.
1 cities in Oakland County have their own outdoor lighting rules. Each link goes to that city's dedicated page with code citations.
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