Lynn, MA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

c through e of the City of Lynn Zoning Ordinance, adopted December 9, 2025, sets the fixture standard for off-street parking lot lighting citywide. Freestanding light poles cannot exceed 25 feet, and poles used specifically for walkway lighting are capped lower, at 12 feet. The ordinance bans the classic glare sources outright: luminaires must be the shoebox type or decorative in nature, and flood and area lighting are not allowed at all. Where a property uses wall pack fixtures for exterior illumination, the fixture must carry a prismatic lens to cut glare, the light must be designed to a maximum cutoff of 70 degrees from vertical, and the wall pack itself cannot be mounted higher than 20 feet.

0 foot-candle spillover ceiling in the adjoining subsection, these rules function as Lynn's dark-sky standard: the code doesn't ban outdoor lighting, it forces every fixture on a covered lot toward full cutoff, downward-directed light. a, which requires off-street parking facilities other than single- and two-family dwellings to be lit at night in the first place, so a property can't simply go dark to avoid the shielding rules; it has to light the lot and shield it. E is where Inspectional Services checks fixture cut sheets and pole heights before a permit issues.