Oak Park, IL Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Village Code Chapter 8, Article 12 licenses parking garages and parking lots, and its lighting standard sits at § 8-12-9. When a licensed lot permits night parking it must be lighted continuously from sunset to sunrise, but the ordinance does not stop at requiring illumination: the fixtures must be arranged to reflect light away from adjoining lots while still providing enough distribution to distinguish silhouettes for security purposes. Proper shades are required on every installation specifically to control glare and to prevent light from infringing on adjoining properties, and open, unshielded bulbs are banned outright.

This sits alongside the article's other operating standards for licensed lots, including a barrier requirement along property lines so no parked vehicle overhangs a neighboring lot, and grading rules so storm water is collected on site rather than draining onto adjacent land. Because this lighting rule lives in the parking lot and garage licensing article, it applies to the shading and aiming of fixtures on licensed commercial and institutional parking facilities within the Village, not to residential yard or security lighting generally, which the Village Code does not separately regulate outside this article.

A parking lot licensee whose lighting plan does not meet the shading and glare standard can be denied approval of the plat or drawing required at licensing, since lighting type is one of the details the application must show under § 8-12-4.