Chandler, AZ Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 30-20 of the City Code, part of the Property Maintenance Ordinance adopted by Ordinance No. 4951 in 2021 and amended by Ordinance No. 5075 in 2024, is titled "Miscellaneous" and lists a series of general property-maintenance prohibitions. Subsection N states plainly that no person shall cause, allow, or permit any exterior lighting rays to be directed off the property on which the lighting is located onto any abutting or adjacent public or private property. The rule is not confined to one land use, it sits among nuisance provisions covering junk storage, blight, noxious odors, and pest infestation that apply to all buildings, structures, and lands citywide regardless of zoning district or date of construction, per the ordinance's scope clause in Section 30-2(A).

A parallel, more technical standard applies at the development-review stage: zoning code provisions require a photometric study demonstrating zero footcandles at the property line for certain use permits, and site plans for planned developments must show exterior lighting design with reference to adjacent properties before approval. But Section 30-20(N) is the standing, code-enforcement-triggered rule that reaches an existing fixture, a floodlight, security light, or landscape light, already aimed or positioned so its rays cross onto a neighbor's yard after installation, not just new construction under review.

Because the subsection sits in Chapter 30 rather than the zoning code, it is enforced administratively through Code Enforcement's civil-citation process under Chapter 26 rather than through the Planning Division's site-plan review.