Pottstown, PA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Pottstown's design standards for new subdivisions and land-development plans live in Chapter 22 of the Borough Code, not in the Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 27). Part 5, 'Design,' runs from Section 500 through Section 512, covering building materials, buffering between commercial and residential districts, and, at Section 512, exterior lighting. Subsection 2, 'Types,' requires that outdoor lighting be integrated with a building's architectural character and specifies that downcast or cutoff-type fixtures be used wherever a plan lights pedestrian or traffic circulation corridors and signage, the dark-sky fixture requirement that keeps light aimed down at pavement rather than out toward the horizon or up into the sky.

The chapter cross-references Appendix A5 (Sections A500 through A532) for additional detailed standards, and Section 512 itself directs readers to Appendix Sections A512 through A516 for further lighting specifications, filed separately at the Borough office as plan attachments rather than printed in the main ordinance text. Because this chapter governs subdivision and land-development review, the fixture requirement attaches to new construction and expansion projects that come before the Pottstown Planning Commission and Borough Council for plan approval, not to lighting already installed on existing single-family homes.

A developer who believes strict compliance creates an undue hardship can ask Borough Council for a modification under Section 600, using the hardship standards set by the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code; the request must be in writing, filed with the development application, and must identify the specific provision, the grounds for hardship, and the minimum modification needed. Council can refer the request to the Planning Commission or other Borough bodies before deciding.