Auburn, AL Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Section 515 of Auburn's Zoning Ordinance governs glare and shielding for every outdoor light fixture serving a nonresidential or multi-family use, from parking-lot poles to building floodlights. The rule has two parts. First, any light fixture built into a non-enclosed structure, the kind of canopy over a gas pump island or a car wash bay, must be fully recessed into the underside of that structure so the bulb itself is not visible from outside. Second, every outdoor fixture, recessed or not, must be directed and/or shielded so the light focuses on the use it serves and stays off adjacent property, sidewalks and streets used by pedestrians and vehicles.

This shielding duty is separate from, and applies in addition to, the numeric foot-candle ceiling the same section sets at the property line. The Planning Department reviews lighting plans as part of site plan approval for commercial, industrial and multi-family projects, and the Official Building Inspector can cite a property after construction if a canopy light was installed without a recessed fixture or a floodlight is aimed onto a neighbor's lawn instead of the parking lot it is meant to serve. Because Section 515 sits inside the ordinance's general development standards, it applies citywide in every zoning district rather than being limited to a lighting overlay, so student-rental parking areas near Auburn University and retail lots along the interstate corridor are held to the same recessed-canopy and shielding standard as any other commercial site.