Warren, MI Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

The shielding and no-upward-light standard is written into the used car lot site design requirements of Article XV, the C-3 Wholesale and Intensive Business District. Section 15.01(e) permits used car lots as a use in C-3 subject to a long list of locational and design conditions, and item 13 covers 'Site design requirements.' Sub-item (g) is the lighting clause: 'All lighting on the site shall be shielded. All glare shall be eliminated from all light fixtures and not encroach upon abutting properties. Lighting shall otherwise not direct illumination upon abutting properties, or emit illumination upon abutting properties in a manner that or of such magnitude that encroaches upon their peace. The light poles shall be no higher than twenty (20) feet. Upward directed lighting, searchlights, moving beams, and spotlights shall not be permitted.'

This sits alongside other C-3 used car lot standards in the same numbered list: an eight-foot landscaped greenbelt or a six-foot brick-embossed wall along residentially zoned property (item f), a minimum lot size of 25,000 square feet, and a required special land use permit from the City Council after Planning Commission review under Section 22.14 (item h). A used car lot's site plan is reviewed against all of these together, so the lighting layout has to be shown alongside the greenbelt, driveway and parking details before approval. Because Section 14.01(p)(A)(6) sets a nearly identical shielded, no-upward-light standard for auto washes, Warren applies the same no-glare, capped-height approach to both of the C-2/C-3 corridor's most lighting-intensive vehicle uses.