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

Section 22-92 of the Palatine Village Code sets maximum light-intensity levels that a property owner, occupant or controlling entity may cause to fall on adjoining land. Light spilling onto adjoining R1, R1A, R1B, R1C or R2 residentially zoned property, or onto P or PUD property improved with single-family homes, may not exceed one-tenth of one footcandle. The limit rises to two-tenths of a footcandle for adjoining R3 or R3A property and improved multifamily P or PUD property, two footcandles for adjoining commercially zoned property, and five footcandles for a public way running through a commercial district.

Separate glare rules apply to floodlights: no floodlight may be mounted higher than 25 feet, and no part of its beam may strike the ground at more than 45 degrees from vertical. Surface brightness viewed from adjoining property between horizontal and 45 degrees above horizontal is capped at 750 foot-lamberts from R1 and R2-type property, 1,500 foot-lamberts from R3 and R3A property, 2,200 foot-lamberts from commercial property and 10,000 foot-lamberts from any public way. Light must be measured with a direct-reading portable meter reading zero to 20 footcandles, using the Illuminating Engineering Society's standard methods, at 90 degrees to the light's incidence.

The environmental health director enforces the section and can order an existing lighting condition corrected on written notice, served personally, by mail, by publication, or by posting on the premises. A property owner facing practical difficulty can petition the environmental health division for a variation after a published hearing held 15 to 30 days out.