Bloomington, IN Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

090(c) of the Unified Development Ordinance sets Bloomington's general outdoor lighting standards, and two parts of it do the dark-sky work. Subsection (c)(3) bans laser, strobe or flashing source light, or any similarly high-intensity light, when used for outdoor advertising or entertainment, and separately bans the operation of searchlights except when a civil authority uses one for public safety; tower lighting is barred outright unless the Federal Aviation Administration requires it. Subsection (c)(5) covers glare and shielding: every lighting fixture must be installed so it does not cause glare at or beyond the property line and is not aimed toward traffic, and, unless a fixture is on the ordinance's exemption list, it must be fully shielded so the lighting element itself is never visible to someone standing at any property line, and it must be a full cutoff fixture as installed.

A fixture may only throw light upward if a canopy, roof or similar structure catches and reflects all of that upward light back down. The shielding duty eases only for motion-detector lighting under one thousand eight hundred lumens that shuts off within ten minutes of activation, and for a short list of exemptions in subsection (b)(3), including emergency lighting, traffic signals, up to three flagpoles, low-lumen bulbs under the two-hundred-sixty-lumen threshold, and holiday lighting using typical unshielded low-intensity incandescent lamps. Floodlights and spotlights get an added rule in subsection (c)(5)(B): they must be shielded so the light element is not visible from any residentially zoned or used property or from a public right-of-way, and their beam cannot be aimed higher than forty-five degrees above vertical, or above horizontal at all if the fixture casts light over more than ninety degrees. The Planning and Transportation Department reviews outdoor lighting plans against this section as part of site plan approval.