Orem, UT Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 22-9-9 of Orem's Zoning Ordinance, titled Miscellaneous Regulations for Manufacturing, Research and Development and Public Facilities Zones, governs the M1, M2, CM, and BP zones along Orem's industrial corridors. Subsection F states plainly that outdoor lighting shall be designed to minimize direct glare to adjoining residences, putting the burden on the property owner or developer, not the City, to choose fixtures, shielding, and aim that keep light on-site. The lighting rule sits alongside sister standards in the same section: subsection A requires a wooden, masonry, or other decorative sight-obscuring fence wherever a manufacturing lot adjoins a residential lot; subsection C requires outdoor merchandise storage to sit behind a sight-obscuring fence at least six feet tall; and subsection D bars excessive or offensive dust, odor, smoke, intermittent light, or noise that is discernible beyond the zone boundary lines.

Together these provisions form Orem's buffer package for keeping industrial operations from spilling onto next-door homes, first adopted by Ordinance No. 661 in 1990 and last amended by Ordinance No. O-01-0021 in 2001. Because the lighting standard is written into the Zoning Ordinance rather than a stand-alone lighting code, it is administered as a zoning compliance matter: the City Manager is charged with enforcement under Section 22-1-3, and Development Services staff can require a site plan applicant to revise a lighting layout before approval, or treat an existing glare complaint as a code violation once it is filed.