New Jersey has no statewide dark-sky lighting law for private property, and Somerset County cannot make one. Any shielded-lighting or full-cutoff requirement comes from a municipal zoning or site-plan ordinance, which vary widely across Bridgewater, Hillsborough, and Bernards.
No New Jersey statute requires dark-sky or full-cutoff lighting on private homes and businesses, and Somerset County has no ordinance power to impose one. Where dark-sky rules exist they come from a municipal zoning ordinance or from site-plan and conditional-use conditions adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law. Many Somerset towns require shielded, downward-directed, full-cutoff fixtures in new commercial and multifamily development, cap pole heights, and limit foot-candle spillover at property lines, while rural Bernards, Bedminster, and Montgomery weigh lighting on dark rural character. Standards are set town by town, so a fixture allowed in one municipality may be restricted in the next. Enforcement runs through the municipal planning board and zoning officer during site-plan review, never the county.
There is no county or state dark-sky citation for private property.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Somerville, NJ
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Somerset County, NJ
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Somerset County, NJ
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Somerset County, NJ
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