Chicopee, MA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 275-40, Parking and loading, was amended by Ord. No. 94-37 on 7-5-1994 and Ord. No. 11-16 on 6-21-2011. Subsection C sets general requirements for all parking lots, and item (12) is the lighting rule: lighting shall be installed so that it does not glare onto residential properties or interfere with the safe operation of motor vehicles on public roads. The standard is qualitative. No numeric brightness limit is printed in that item, so the test is whether glare reaches a residential property or a public road.

Item (11) works alongside it. All parking lots must be screened from abutting residentially zoned or occupied property by a fence or evergreen hedge at least six feet in height. Fences must be solid in appearance, hedge plants must be set close enough together to eliminate gaps in coverage, and screening must be maintained without gaps from disrepair or unhealthy or dead plantings. Screening cannot be located to obstruct driver sight lines at intersections or driveway entrances or exits. Item (8) adds that paved areas cannot extend within ten feet of land zoned for residential uses or eight feet from a street lot line. In subsection J(4), a parking structure that abuts a residential development, beside, behind or across the street from it, must be designed so headlights do not shine through the structure.

Several districts carry their own lighting text. Section 275-67, the Mill Conversion and Commercial Center Overlay District, says the glare from outdoor lights and illuminated signs shall be contained on the property and shielded from abutting properties. Section 275-65, the Mixed Use MXD District, lists assurance that outdoor lighting, including lighting on a building exterior or in parking areas, is arranged to minimize glare and light spillover to neighboring properties. Section 275-63.1 repeats the parking lot rule for the Type II Garden Industrial Planned Unit Development. The Building Department enforces Chapter 275 under § 275-5.