Light trespass addressed through town nuisance ordinances. No state statute specifically addressing residential light spillover. Property maintenance code (19 NYCRR 1226) covers blight conditions. Civil nuisance claims available under NY common law.
New York has no statewide light-trespass statute, so Orange County residents rely on town-level ordinances and common-law nuisance. Many Orange County towns (Warwick, Wallkill, New Windsor, Chester) have adopted outdoor lighting chapters modeled on the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) recommendations, requiring full-cutoff fixtures for commercial sites and capping light at property lines to 0.1-0.5 foot-candles. The NYS Uniform Code and Property Maintenance Code (19 NYCRR 1226, adopting IPMC) address unsafe lighting but not residential spillover. Under NY common-law private nuisance (see Copart Indus. v. Con Edison, 41 N.Y.2d 564), a homeowner substantially and unreasonably disturbed by a neighbor's lighting may sue for injunction and damages — the test is whether the intrusion is unreasonable under the circumstances. The Hudson Valley also has a growing dark-sky movement; Cornwall, Highlands, and Tuxedo have stricter commercial lighting rules to protect the night-sky viewshed of the Hudson Highlands and Palisades Interstate Park.
Commercial lighting violations of local code: $100-$500 per day typical under NY Town Law §268. Civil nuisance suits in NY Supreme Court can result in injunctions requiring shielding or removal plus compensatory damages.
Orange County, NY
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