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

Town Code § 140-4D requires every outdoor luminaire to be a design accepted by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, IESNA, as a fully enclosed, cutoff-style fixture, built with an integrally designed, fixed-connector arm for post or wall mounting rather than a swivel mount that could be redirected to shine outward. Section 140-4E's mounting rules build on that shielding requirement: fixtures must face inward from a property's perimeter toward the structure wherever possible, architectural lighting such as facade, fountain, feature, and landscape fixtures must be aimed so their output stays on the object being lit, canopy fixtures must use a flat lens because drop lenses are barred, and flood or spotlights may not be installed or aimed so they project into a neighboring window, directly skyward, or onto a roadway.

Service stations and convenience stores may not mount lighting on the canopy's top or fascia. Height is measured from the ground under § 140-4F. These shielding and cutoff requirements sit alongside the direct-ray and one-footcandle trespass limits in § 140-4A and C, and any fixture already installed before the 2006 chapter that doesn't meet the cutoff-fixture standard is a nonconforming light under § 140-6, required to come into compliance within one year of the chapter's effective date.