Cass County, MO Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Article XI of the Cass County Zoning Order sets design standards for every off-street parking and loading area built in the unincorporated county. Section 400.680(A) lists eleven numbered requirements, and item 8 addresses light trespass directly: fixtures illuminating parking and loading areas 'shall be minimal and not create a negative light pollution impact on any adjacent residential properties and be directed away from the residential use,' and the same limit applies to lighting installed with new construction. The rule does not set a numeric foot-candle ceiling for parking lot fixtures the way the county's billboard lighting standard does (Section 400.800(C)(6)(c) caps billboard-face lighting at twenty foot-candles); instead it is a directional, qualitative standard covering shielding and aiming, not a lux table.

Plans for off-street parking layouts, including lighting placement, go to the Zoning Officer as part of the zoning action application described in Section 400.670(A)(1). Because parking lot lighting is embedded in the Zoning Order rather than a stand-alone nuisance-light chapter, a light-trespass complaint against a commercial or industrial neighbor's parking lot lighting in unincorporated Cass County is handled by the Planning and Zoning Department through the zoning enforcement process in Section 400.030(22), not by the Sheriff's Office. Loading areas next to residential uses carry an additional screening duty under item 11 of the same section: where a loading area's operations create a negative impact on adjacent uses, the County can require a visual screening barrier. Together these two paragraphs of Section 400.680 are the county's only codified light-trespass standard for parking and loading facilities.