Troup County, GA Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

In unincorporated Troup County, outdoor lighting fixtures are regulated under Section 5.6 of the county's Unified Development Ordinance, adopted by Ord. No. 2025-03 on June 3, 2025. The stated purpose of the section is to permit reasonable outdoor lighting for nighttime safety while curtailing degradation of the nighttime visual environment, preserving the dark night sky for astronomy, and minimizing glare, obtrusive light, and artificial sky glow from misdirected or excessive fixtures. Every outdoor lighting device installed in the unincorporated county, from a homeowner's driveway light to a commercial parking lot fixture, must comply with Section 5.6 along with the applicable building code and electrical code, and is subject to required permits and inspections administered by the Community Development Department.

The core design rule is the full-cutoff requirement: fixtures must be placed so that no light is emitted above the horizontal as measured at the luminaire itself, so a light cannot simply be aimed downward, it has to be physically shielded to prevent any upward spill. The code carves out one narrow exception for period fixtures, decorative styles common on porches, which may use cutoff fixtures instead of the stricter full-cutoff design. Beyond the general rule, the ordinance separately bans specific lighting types outright in the Urban Village (UR-VL) zoning district, including aerial lasers, searchlight-style lights, mercury vapor lamps, low-sodium vapor lamps, exposed neon, LED light strips, and any source exceeding 200,000 lumens or 2,000,000 candelas.

Certain uses are exempted from the division altogether, among them underwater pool and fountain lighting, temporary holiday lighting, FAA-required aviation lighting, emergency lighting used by police, fire, or medical personnel, and motion-sensor security lighting that runs 10 minutes or less.