Greenwood, IN Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Section 10-03-07 of the Greenwood UDO requires a photometric plan with every final site plan showing fixture layout, orientation, and mounting height. Under subsection D.1.d, all lighting fixtures, except sports field lighting and decorative architectural lighting, must be full 90-degree cutoff fixtures, meaning the fixture design directs light downward rather than letting it spill sideways or upward. Subsection E.4 extends that mandate specifically to parking and vehicular display areas, where light fixtures must be full cutoff regardless of lumen output. Subsection E.7 sets a citywide backstop for everywhere else: any fixture over two thousand lumens must be full cutoff unless it fits a narrow exception for decorative, non-cutoff fixtures, and even those decorative fixtures cannot exceed nine thousand five hundred lumens, must use lamps with an internal white frosting to diffuse light or a refractive lens or globe on metal halide fixtures, and open-bottom fixtures must carry full cutoff shields.

Fixture height is separately capped: no higher than thirty feet in parking and vehicular areas, fifteen feet along pedestrian paths, and fifteen feet if the fixture sits within three hundred feet of a residential property line, all enforced by Community Development Services at site plan review.