Milton, WI Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Sec. 20(5)(a) of the City of Milton Zoning Ordinance states that in no instance shall an exterior lighting fixture be oriented so that the lighting element, or a clear shield covering it, is visible from an adjacent property, and it encourages shielded luminaries and careful fixture placement to meet that standard. A separate clause in subsection (5)(c)5 prohibits reflected glare onto nearby buildings, streets, or pedestrian areas, covering glare bounced off a surface rather than a direct sightline to the bulb. Together these two clauses reach both the light source itself and light that bounces onto a neighbor's building, a sidewalk, or the street.

The purpose clause at the top of Sec. 20 ties the rule to preventing spillover and glare that create a nuisance for pedestrians, drivers, and adjacent land uses. Compliance is reviewed at the site plan stage under Sec. 42 for new and redeveloped sites, and light fixtures placed before the chapter's effective date are treated as legal nonconforming rather than forced into immediate compliance.