Brookhaven, NY Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

The Town's exterior lighting article states its dark-sky purpose directly: § 85-863B(5) lists protecting and reclaiming 'the ability to view the night sky' among the article's goals, and defines FULL CUTOFF as a luminaire designed so that no light is emitted at or above a horizontal plane running through the luminaire's lowest point, with luminous intensity from 80° to 90° capped at 10% of the lamp's lumen rating per an independent lab's photometric report. Section 85-866C requires that all streetlight luminaires shall be full cutoff, with a narrow exception letting a historic-style decorative luminaire emit up to 2% of its total lumens above the horizontal, and only after a finding that passive alternatives such as reflectorized markers or signs cannot do the job and that energy, glare, skyglow and light-trespass impacts have been considered.

Section 85-868D extends the same standard to nonresidential development broadly, stating that all area exterior lights shall be full cutoff luminaires. Section 85-868C layers on the same cutoff-and-recessed standard for under-canopy lighting such as gas station canopies, and § 85-868F requires ATM and bank lighting to be full cutoff and not exceed the illuminance set by the New York State ATM Lighting Law. Section 85-868G is the blunt backstop: unshielded wall packs and floodlights are prohibited outright, with no discretion. Existing nonconforming fixtures get a phase-in: § 85-871A gives fixtures installed before the standards took effect up to ten years to come into compliance or until they are removed or replaced, whichever occurs first.