Clay, NY Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Chapter 140, the Lighting chapter, adopted September 18, 2006 by Local Law No. 8-2006, sets the Town's outdoor lighting standards under § 140-4. Subsection A requires every exterior light, lamp, and other illumination on private property to be arranged, adjusted, and screened so that no illumination causes direct light rays to cross any property line, and so that permanent outdoor lights used for area lighting or building floodlighting come from steady, stationary, shielded sources aimed to avoid hazarding motorists or pedestrians or casting direct rays onto neighboring properties.

Subsection C caps the marginal increase in light at any property line other than a street line at one footcandle, defined at § 140-2 as the illuminance one foot from a one-candle point source. Subsection B separately bans blinking, intermittent, flashing, or animated illumination and any source that creates glare, whether directly or indirectly. Subsection E requires fixtures to face inward from the property's perimeter toward the structure where possible, and bars flood or spotlights from projecting into a neighbor's window, onto a roadway, or directly skyward.

Nonresidential lighting must be extinguished 30 minutes after closing until dawn under § 140-4G unless needed for safety or security. Any existing light that doesn't meet these standards becomes a nonconforming light under § 140-6 and had one year from the chapter's effective date to be brought into compliance.