Vineland, NJ Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Vineland's community design standards address dark-sky-style shielding specifically for parking area lighting at § 425-86.M(9). Parking area lighting must be shielded from adjacent properties using flat glass lenses, house-side shields, and NEMA Type II, III or IV reflectors, photometric distribution classes used to keep light directed downward and away from neighboring parcels rather than scattering upward or sideways. Where a project chooses decorative acorn-type fixtures, those fixtures cannot exceed 18 feet in height or 250 watts per bulb, and must use a textured clear lens or globe, frosted or phosphor-coated bulbs, and an internal optical system, again engineered to control glare and spill.

These parking-area rules sit alongside the chapter's general lighting standards: light fixtures elsewhere on site are capped at 30 feet in height in parking lots and 16 feet in nonvehicular pedestrian areas, illumination at the property line cannot exceed 1.0 footcandle, and all parking areas, pedestrian walkways, bikeways and loading or service areas must conform to those same requirements. A lighting plan demonstrating this shielding must be submitted with any site plan application, and lighting intensities must otherwise follow the most recent edition of the Illuminating Engineering Society's Lighting Handbook.