Dane County, WI Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Ch. 102(5) sets the county's baseline outdoor lighting rule for every permitted and conditional use: except for lighting the American flag, fixtures must be directed downward and away from adjacent properties and public rights-of-way and designed to minimize ambient light spill. That standard applies automatically, without a separate lighting permit, to any lawfully established use in the unincorporated towns under county zoning. For uses that go through the conditional use process, the track most commercial, agricultural-business, and larger residential-accessory proposals must follow, ch. j goes further, requiring the operational plan submitted with the application to describe the proposed outdoor lighting and the measures taken to mitigate light-pollution impacts to neighboring properties.

The zoning committee reviews that plan at the public hearing required for every conditional use permit, and can condition approval on specific shielding, direction, or timing measures before signing off. Because lighting conditions become part of the permit itself, ch. 101(7)(g) lets the zoning committee revoke a conditional use permit, after written notice and a chance to correct, if the operator's outdoor lighting later fails to comply with what was approved, and the zoning administrator may enter the property to inspect for compliance. As with the rest of Chapter 10, this lighting standard only reaches unincorporated towns that adopted county zoning; Madison and Dane's incorporated cities enforce their own lighting rules.