Bensalem, PA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 201-112(o), part of the Township's subdivision and land development parking facility standards, requires public parking areas to be illuminated to a minimum of one footcandle during after-dark operating hours, with light standards mounted on raised parking islands rather than on the parking surface itself. The same subsection then sets the trespass ceiling: in no case may more than one-half footcandle of light fall upon any neighboring property or street. To prove compliance before a plan is approved, the applicant must submit a lighting plan with isolumen footprints for each fixture, showing the calculated light levels both on the lot and at its boundaries.

The lighting standard works alongside the screening rules in subsection (p), which requires off-street commercial parking facilities that run parallel to a public right-of-way to be screened by earthen berms or masonry walls at least four feet high for passenger parking and eight feet for truck and loading areas, reinforcing the goal of shielding neighboring residential districts from both glare and visual intrusion from a parking lot.