O'Fallon, MO Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

277 regulates private exterior lighting citywide, exempting only lighting in public rights-of-way or on public property. Under subsection D(1), an exterior lighting fixture cannot be oriented so that the lighting element itself, or a transparent shield covering it, is visible from a property inside a residential zoning district; the Section explicitly encourages shielded luminaries and careful fixture placement to meet this standard. Before any development can install exterior lighting, subsection C requires the location, orientation, intensity of illumination and configuration of every fixture to be shown on the photometric plan submitted with site plan review under Article XIV of the Zoning Code, giving City staff a documented basis to check shielding and orientation before construction rather than after a neighbor complains.

The stated purpose behind the whole Section, laid out in subsection A, is to control spill-over light and glare that could affect drivers, pedestrians and nearby land uses, tying the shielding rule directly to traffic safety and nuisance prevention rather than aesthetics alone.