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

Chapter 240 of the Greenburgh Town Code, the Sign and Illumination Law adopted in 1969, sets the town's outdoor lighting standard outside the villages of Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington and Tarrytown, which each enforce their own codes. Section 240-2 caps illumination at the minimum needed for security and public safety, requires every light source to be shielded or aimed so direct rays are not cast onto any property other than the lot it sits on, bans flashing, moving or color-shifting illumination outright, and requires non-essential lighting to be extinguished by an automatic control device one half-hour after the premises close to the public.

Because the definition of ILLUMINATION in Section 240-1 covers any outside floodlighting or lighting of an area, object or structure by electricity or combustion, the shielding duty reaches parking lot lights, building floodlights and sign lighting alike. Section 240-4 folds illumination into the same permitting track as signs: erecting, altering or maintaining any illumination without a written permit from the Building Inspector is itself a separate violation of the chapter. A property owner who wants relief from the shielding or curfew rule must apply to the Zoning Board of Appeals under Section 240-6, which can grant a variance only on conditions that keep the lighting limited to genuine security needs, non-distracting to traffic, and non-disruptive to nearby residential uses.