Fayette County, GA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Fayette County's zoning ordinance addresses outdoor light spilling onto neighboring homes through the conditional use standards for a specific use rather than through a general county-wide lighting ordinance. Self-storage facilities, described as 'external and/or internal access' in Section 110-169(2)qq, are allowed only in the G-B, M-1 and C-H zoning districts, and item 7 of that section requires that all outdoor lighting be shielded away from adjacent residential areas. The requirement sits among other conditions built into the same conditional use, including a minimum width for aisle ways adjacent to storage bay doors, a cap on the size of any individual storage unit, and a ban on exterior loudspeakers or paging equipment.

Because the shielding rule is written into this specific conditional use rather than into a stand-alone outdoor lighting chapter, it applies directly to self-storage development plans reviewed by the Fayette County Planning and Zoning Department, and compliance is verified as part of the site plan required before a conditional use permit or building permit is issued. Other conditional uses elsewhere in Section 110-169 carry similar lighting language tied to their own activity, such as time-of-day curfews on outdoor athletic-facility and event lighting, showing the same site-plan-driven approach: Fayette County controls nuisance lighting use by use, tied to the specific activity generating it, rather than through one general light trespass standard covering every property in the unincorporated area.