Wilmington, NC Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

City Code doesn't regulate outdoor lighting as one citywide standard; instead it writes shielding and height rules into each zoning district's site design standards. Sec. 18-202, the Riverfront Mixed Use District governing the Cape Fear River corridor, states that all site lighting shall be located, angled, shielded, and/or limited in intensity so as to cast no direct light upon adjacent properties, bars off-site backlighting glare and up-lighting, and limits light posts to 12 feet. The Light Industrial District's Sec. 18-198(b) takes a numeric approach instead, capping unrestricted fixtures at 10 feet and any fixture using ninety-degree cutoff lighting at 15 feet.

The Residential Office District along Oleander Drive, Sec. 18-203(f)(2)j, goes further for its residential-scale corridor: exterior lighting must use cutoff or shielded luminaries directed toward the center of the property, may not shine onto neighboring land or the public right-of-way, is capped at 10 feet, must clear at least 8 feet above any pedestrian area, and requires a lighting plan submitted with the technical review committee application. The Main Street Mixed Use District, Sec. 18-193(e)(2)g, repeats the same shielding language and the 10-foot/15-foot cutoff heights.

Each of these standards applies only within its own zoning district; a property outside RFMU, LI, RO or MSMU zoning is not bound by any of these specific fixture rules.