Blue Springs, MO Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Blue Springs graduates its outdoor lighting standards by how much a fixture's light is cut off, in Section 407.060(E) of the UDC. Luminaires with no cutoff face the tightest limits, from 0.20 footcandles and a 10-foot pole in residential districts up to 0.30 footcandles and 20 feet in the GB, RC, and LI districts. Fixtures with a cutoff angle of ninety degrees or more get higher allowances, up to 1.50 footcandles and a 35-foot pole in LI. The most shielded category, luminaires with a cutoff angle under ninety degrees where the bare bulb is completely hidden from a viewer standing five feet above the ground at the cutoff point, earns the highest allowances under Section 407.060(E)(3), reaching 4.00 footcandles and a 50-foot pole in LI.

Section 407.060(F) then exempts ball diamonds, playing fields, and tennis courts from those illumination and height tables entirely because of their nighttime-use needs, but caps their light poles at eighty feet and requires shielding so glare does not spill onto adjacent property zoned SF-7 or less intensive, where illumination at the lot line cannot exceed two footcandles. Section 407.060(H) further steers fixture selection toward color-correct sources such as halogen, metal halide, or high-pressure sodium vapor, allows low-pressure sodium where energy efficiency matters, and strongly discourages mercury vapor lighting. Compliance is measured with a color- and cosine-corrected light meter under the procedure in Section 407.060(G).