Worcester County, MD Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Worcester County Code § ZS 1-323(b) sets the shielding rules for multi-family, townhouse, commercial and industrial development in unincorporated Worcester County. Every exterior lighting installation must follow the County's "Design Guidelines and Standards for Commercial Uses" on lighting and the numbered standards. An exterior lighting plan showing fixtures and lighting levels measured in watts and lumens goes in with the site plan required by § ZS 1-325. Sodium vapor lights are prohibited, and all exterior lights must be metal halide or another type of white lighting.

Any exterior fixture other than a fixture on the building facade that emits two thousand fifty lumens or more must be a full-cutoff fixture. The code defines that as a fixture designed so that no light is projected at or above a ninety-degree plane through the lowest point where light is emitted, and less than ten percent of the rated lumens are projected between ninety and eighty degrees. Freestanding pole-mounted fixtures are capped at sixteen feet or less for continuously energized lights and thirty-five feet or less above grade for noncontinuously energized lights; a raised foundation to protect poles from bumpers lifts those limits to eighteen and thirty-seven feet.

Canopy lighting cannot project below the bottom of the canopy, high-intensity lighting is limited to utility areas and must be located away from or screened from public use areas, and no fixture can project light at an angle greater than forty-five degrees above the horizontal unless the Technical Review Committee or Planning Commission approves it after weighing the object lit, the angle, the separation and the light source strength. Subsection (a) adds a county-wide purpose: all lighting must be directed within the site's property lines to protect the night sky from light pollution. Sign lighting follows § ZS 1-324(h), which also protects the night sky. Ocean City, Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke City are separate.