Chapel Hill, NC Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Section 5.11 of the Land Use Management Ordinance states its purpose directly: lighting standards are designed to minimize spillover of light onto adjacent property, glare that could impair vision, and other conditions that deteriorate the normally accepted qualities and uses of neighboring land. Section 5.11.1 applies that intent to any outside lighting used around buildings, recreation areas, parking areas, walkways, drives or signs, and requires every lighting source to be shielded or arranged so it does not send glare into a public right-of-way or become a nuisance to neighbors.

Section 5.11.2 turns that intent into a hard number: fixture height is tied to how well the fixture is shielded. An unshielded, non-cutoff light fixture, the type most prone to glare and sky glow, cannot be mounted above 15 feet. A full cutoff fixture, engineered so no light escapes above the horizontal plane of the fixture, can be mounted up to 35 feet, more than double the non-cutoff limit, because its shielding keeps stray light off adjacent land and out of the sky. The only carve-out is sports and athletic field lighting, addressed separately in Sec.

5.11.3, which instead requires glare-control packages such as louvers or shields and aims beams onto the field and its ancillary areas like bleachers. Any nonresidential project or building over five dwelling or lodging units must also submit a lighting plan under Sec. 5.11.6, sealed by a licensed engineer or an NCQLP-certified lighting specialist, showing isolux contour diagrams for both the site and adjacent property.