South Fulton, GA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

01 of the South Fulton Zoning Ordinance sets the purpose of the city's Outdoor Lighting Standards article: to allow reasonable nighttime lighting for safety and commerce while curtailing and reversing degradation of the nighttime visual environment, preserving the dark night sky for astronomy, and minimizing glare and artificial sky glow from misdirected or excessive lighting. The operative standards back that intent with hard requirements. 06(a) requires nonexempt outdoor fixtures to be full cutoff, meaning no light is emitted above the horizontal as measured at the luminaire, with a narrow exception for period-style cutoff fixtures.

05 flatly prohibits aerial lasers, searchlight-style lights, lighting exceeding 200,000 lumens or two million candelas, mercury vapor lamps, and neon lighting. 03, and they extend to the whole property, not just new fixtures, whenever a building addition or modification adds 25 percent or more floor area, dwelling units, or parking, or when 60 percent or more of a parcel's permitted lumens are replaced. 04 covers pool lighting, temporary holiday lighting, FAA-required lighting, emergency lighting, and motion-activated security lighting limited to ten minutes or less. 09(f) requires an illumination engineer to certify the installed lighting matches approved plans before a CO issues.