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

Section 445-25's general provisions set the baseline: every use has to 'direct, deflect, and shield lights and control the intensity of lights and illuminated signs to avoid nuisances and to prevent glare onto other properties and streets,' lights can't shine into a motorist's normal line of sight, and canopy lighting, the kind over a gas station pump island, can only be installed as internal illumination of the canopy itself, not as a downward floodlight.

The chapter backs that general language with numbers, splitting the City into two lighting zones. Lighting Zone 1 covers the Conservation District and the R-6 through R-11 residential districts, and caps illumination at the lot line to 0.10 horizontal and vertical foot-candles measured three feet above ground, on-site illumination at 3 foot-candles, and average on-site illumination at 1 foot-candle, with no more than 5% of a fixture's lumens allowed to shine at a 90-degree angle or greater from straight down. Lighting Zone 2, covering the Recreation, Neighborhood, Downtown, Institutional, Civic, Highway Commercial, Planned Commercial, Commercial-Industrial, and Light Industrial districts, allows roughly double: a 0.20 foot-candle lot-line limit, a 5 foot-candle on-site maximum, and a 1.5 foot-candle on-site average, with up to 10% of a fixture's lumens above the 90-degree cutoff. Low-voltage and LED fixtures are 'encouraged' rather than mandated.