Wichita, KS Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Article IV-B of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Zoning Code groups Screening and Lighting under one section because both standards exist, in the Code's own words, to protect residential Districts from adverse visual impacts associated with nonresidential Development (Sec. IV-B.1, Purpose). The operative lighting rule, Sec. IV-B.4, applies to every outdoor light source on covered property: base or pedestal, pole and fixture. Each must employ a cut-off luminaire, a shielded fixture that directs light down and away rather than spilling sideways or upward, specifically to minimize light trespass and glare onto neighboring land.

Height is tied to distance rather than a flat number in most cases: a fixture may be mounted no higher than one-half the distance to the neighboring lot, so a pole 40 feet from the property line can reach 20 feet, while one only ten feet off the line tops out at five. Inside 200 feet of any residential zoning district the formula gives way to a hard ceiling of 15 feet, unless the property owner satisfies the Zoning Administrator that the light source will be aimed or shielded such that it is not visible from the neighboring lot, an administrative exception built into the section rather than a Board of Zoning Appeals variance.

The standard reaches beyond building-mounted fixtures. A separate off-street parking provision folds parking-lot lighting into the same rule, stating that all lighted Parking Areas shall comply with the lighting standards of Sec. IV-B.4, so a shopping center or office lot cannot install taller, unshielded pole lights just because the fixtures sit over pavement rather than beside a building.

Enforcement runs through the Code's general violation provision, Sec. VI-C, Effect of Violation: any violation of the Code is a misdemeanor under the Code of the City of Wichita, or a violation of the Sedgwick County Code for unincorporated county land, and each day's violation constitutes a separate offense.