Benton County, AR Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Chapter VI's site plan design standards address outdoor lighting under Section 6.5(6), Exterior Lighting, which starts from the premise that 'common lighting practices can also interfere with other legitimate public concerns,' including 'the degradation of the nighttime visual environment by production of unsightly and dangerous glare' and 'the loss of the scenic view of the night sky due to increased urban sky-glow.' To address that, the Regulations require that 'all exterior light fixtures are required to be identified on the site plan along with the intensity and type of light fixture,' and state flatly that 'full cut off light fixtures are required.' The Regulations define the standard precisely: a full cut-off luminaire has 'no direct up-light (no light emitted above horizontal)' and must also meet the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America glare requirement 'limiting intensity of light from the luminaire in the region between 80 degrees and 90 degrees.' For parking areas specifically, the Regulations require that 'the lighting is required to be full cut off lighting' and that it 'be directed away from nearby residential or other sensitive land uses.' Because this section sits inside Chapter VI's site plan design standards, the Planning Board reviews fixture cut sheets and photometric information as part of the same approval that clears a project's parking, loading and landscaping design.