Oyster Bay, NY Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 135-50 of the Town's Housing Standards chapter, added by Local Law No. 6-2018, gives Oyster Bay a direct light-trespass rule rather than leaving glare complaints to a general nuisance clause. The text requires that exterior lighting be "designed to be shielded" and "maintained so as to contain lighting to the property on which it is located," and it separately bars light that shines, glows, or interferes with either neighboring properties or roadways, covering both residential spillover and driver glare in one sentence. The section sits inside Article VI of Chapter 135, the same article that covers exterior building maintenance, fences and vermin control, so a lighting complaint is processed the same way as any other housing maintenance violation: the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development or a designee investigates and can serve a formal notice of violation under the enforcement mechanics set out at Section 135-53 for the chapter generally.

Because the rule is written as a maintenance standard rather than a lumens or footcandle limit, enforcement turns on whether the fixture is unshielded or aimed so that it visibly spills past the lot line, not on a photometric reading. A property owner installing new floodlights, string lighting on a fence, or a security light near a shared driveway should aim and shield the fixture so the beam does not cross onto the adjoining parcel or wash across the street.