Skokie, IL Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Section 118-212(k) of the Zoning Ordinance requires lighting for all new commercial and industrial off-street parking areas and for residential parking areas with more than 20 spaces; residential developments made up only of detached homes are exempt. 0 footcandles, or follow Illuminating Engineering Society standards for other applications, and the Village favors uniform coverage: the lowest footcandle reading anywhere on the pavement should not drop below one-quarter of the designed average. The type of luminaire, the shielding, the pole height, the uniformity ratio and the entire lighting scheme are all subject to sign-off by the Village Traffic Engineer as part of site plan or permit review, and subsection (k)(3)c makes the shielding mandatory rather than optional: lighting units must be of the full cutoff type.

A full cutoff fixture directs light downward with no light emitted above the horizontal plane of the fixture, the design feature that distinguishes dark-sky-compliant lighting from a conventional floodlight or cobra-head pole. The same subsection separately bars directing any lighting toward abutting or adjacent properties, streets or public rights-of-way, so a compliant parking lot has to satisfy both the fixture-type standard and the aiming standard together before the Traffic Engineer will sign off on the plan.