Highland, CA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Highland Municipal Code § 16.48.080 is the light and glare standard in Chapter 16.48, the performance standards chapter of the Development Code. It sets one numeric ceiling: illumination cannot exceed 0.5 foot candles minimum maintained on any adjacent property, and it counts direct light and indirect light from the source. The standard reaches any operation, activity, sign, or lighting fixture, so a lit sign or a parking lot fixture is covered the same way as a floodlight. It also adds a design rule: all lighting is designed to project downward and cannot create glare on adjacent properties.

Section 16.48.020 makes the performance standards apply to land uses within the City of Highland in addition to the standards of the district where the use sits. The community development director enforces them in an ongoing manner. On discovering a potential violation, the director investigates using such instruments as are necessary, and a violation found to exist is abated as prescribed in HMC § 16.04.040. Two sources are exempt: emergency equipment, vehicles, devices and activities, and construction, maintenance or demolition activities identified in Chapter 15.48.

Other sections tighten the rule for specific lighting. Section 16.40.160(B) requires exterior lighting to be shielded or recessed so that direct glare and reflections are contained within the boundaries of the parcel. Security lighting on single-family, duplex and triplex dwellings must be activated by motion sensors, installed a minimum of eight feet above grade, shielded and directed away from surrounding residential uses, and cannot blink, oscillate or be of unusually high intensity. Searchlights for advertising and the illumination of outdoor public recreational facilities are prohibited between midnight and dawn. For private recreational courts, § 16.44.230(E) requires lighting to be cut off when viewed from any point above five feet measured at the lot line, and to be used only between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.