Knox County, TN Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Sec. 10 sets two rules for any parking lot, outdoor storage, product display, or security lighting in the unincorporated county. The principle in subsection A names light trespass onto neighboring property, along with glare and overlighting, as the specific impacts the standard exists to prevent, and also requires that lighting not interfere with drivers in the public right-of-way. The operative standard in subsection B is a shielding-and-direction rule: the light source has to be shielded and arranged so it is directed away from any boundary of the lot or tract adjacent to any property zoned to permit residential uses, rather than a specific footcandle or lumen ceiling.

Before the county issues a building permit for a commercial or industrial use, Sec. 12 requires the applicant to give the director of code administration and enforcement enough information to confirm the lighting plan, along with the rest of the performance standards in Article 4, will be met. If the director suspects a lighting installation violates the shielding requirement, Sec. 13 lets the director have a qualified technician investigate and measure the installation, and the business or property owner responsible for the violation has to pay the county's cost of hiring that technician.

05-footcandle property-line limit for rural retreats under Sec. 2-footcandle limit at residential property lines for drive-through facilities under Sec. 5, which shows what directed away from is meant to accomplish even though the general Sec. 10 standard for ordinary parking, storage, and security lighting does not itself set a footcandle number.