East Brunswick, NJ Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

East Brunswick Township has no standalone dark sky ordinance. The lighting rule that names fixture shielding is in § 228-197 for the HC-3 Highway Commercial Shopping Center District. All outdoor lighting must be high pressure sodium or mercury vapor fixtures or other similar energy savings fixtures, and sharp cut off luminaries must be utilized where appropriate to reduce glare and direct lighting where intended. Mounting heights cannot exceed the height of the building or thirty (30') feet, whichever is less. Lighting must be designed to provide a minimum of .25 footcandles and an average of .75 footcandles throughout all parking areas and access driveways, and all lighting must be stanchion mounted and serviced underground.

Around the fixtures, the same section requires a thirty (30') foot landscaped buffer to shield adjacent roadways and properties from parking lot illumination, headlight glare and fumes. It keeps parking areas and off street loading spaces no closer than thirty (30') feet to any lot line, and where the lot line is the boundary of a residential zone the parking setbacks increase by an additional twenty-five (25') feet containing a planted buffer of massed evergreens approved by the Planning Board. Subsection H adds that the Planning Board reviews visual impacts of the development, including views, shadow effects and design compatibility with surrounding land uses.

Other districts rely on shorter language. Section 192-12 in the design guidelines for all development says adequate lighting shall be provided to ensure safe movement of persons and vehicles and for security purposes, and that directional lights shall be arranged so as to minimize glare and reflections on adjacent properties. Industrial manufacturing sites carry a glare performance standard under § 228-216 that requires area lighting to be directed upon the property from which the light originates.