Citrus County, FL Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)
Key Facts
- Core rule
- No light trespass beyond the property line
- Glare rule
- No luminaire may glare onto adjacent property or ROW
- Ground fixtures
- Parking, loading, entrance lights must be full cutoff
- Floodlights
- Capped at 45 degrees below horizontal
- Section
- LDC § 3426(A)(9)(e)-(f)
- Geographic scope
- Cardinal Street IMA / CMU District only
Summary
Inside Citrus County's Cardinal Mixed Use (CMU) District along the Cardinal Street corridor, the Land Development Code treats any light that unnecessarily spills onto a neighboring parcel as excessive lighting and flatly bars light trespass beyond the property line. Luminaires cannot glare onto adjacent property or the public right-of-way, and ground-oriented fixtures such as parking-lot and loading-dock lights must meet full-cutoff standards to prevent it.
e. Excessive lighting/illumination. Lighting of facilities and other uses shall be arranged and operated in such a manner as to prevent direct glare or hazardous interference of any kind to residentially used or zoned property, adjoining streets, drives, walkways, and general rights-of-way. Lighting within any parcel that unnecessarily illuminates any other parcel based on the criteria provided below for luminaire design and installation shall be considered excessive. f. Luminaire Design and Installation. i. No Light Trespass beyond the property line shall be permitted. ii. No Luminaire shall cause glare onto any adjacent property, or onto the public right of way.
Full Breakdown
LDC § 3426(A)(9)(e) defines excessive lighting for CMU District development as any fixture arranged or operated so it causes direct glare or hazardous interference to residentially used or zoned property, adjoining streets, drives, walkways, or rights-of-way, or that unnecessarily illuminates another parcel under the luminaire-design criteria that follow. Subsection (f), Luminaire Design and Installation, sets the operative limits: no light trespass beyond the property line is permitted (f)(i), and no luminaire may cause glare onto adjacent property or the public right-of-way (f)(ii). Ground-oriented fixtures serving parking areas, loading docks, recreational areas, and site entrances must meet Full Cutoff criteria so no light causes trespass or glare (f)(iii); fixtures aimed at vertical or above-grade features such as signs, architecture, and landscaping must be Full Cutoff or Cutoff and aimed to minimize spill past the object being illuminated (f)(iv).
Wall- or pole-mounted floodlights are capped at 45 degrees below horizontal and must still meet the trespass limits (f)(viii). These standards, adopted by Ordinance 2026-A16 on June 22, 2026, apply to new development and redevelopment inside the Cardinal Street Interchange Management Area reviewed by the Land Development Division under the CMU District's site-development chapter; they do not create a freestanding light-trespass ordinance for the rest of unincorporated Citrus County, where this LDC excerpt shows no equivalent numeric trespass standard.
Violations & Fines
Light-trespass compliance for CMU District projects is verified at PUD and site-plan review; a lighting plan that cannot show full-cutoff or cutoff fixtures aimed to keep illumination on-site can be rejected or conditioned by the Land Development Division before approval. Fixtures installed and later found to spill light or glare onto a neighboring parcel or the public right-of-way are subject to Citrus County's code-enforcement process.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as light trespass under this rule?
Does the light-trespass ban cover the whole county?
Are floodlights restricted separately?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Citrus County
Florida rules heatmap·Compare Citrus County to another location·View the Florida outdoor lighting overview
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