Pasadena, CA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

" One footcandle is roughly the brightness cast by a single candle held about a foot away, a comparatively low ceiling that keeps parking lot lights, security floodlights and sign lighting from washing across a property line into a neighbor's yard or windows. The measurement is taken on the receiving parcel, not at the fixture, so a bright pole light that is heavily shielded on the source lot can still violate the rule if the readable footcandle level on the neighboring residential lot exceeds one.

The same subsection requires fixtures to be shielded or recessed and "directed downward and away from adjoining properties," pairing the numeric cap with a design mandate so both the intensity and the aim of a fixture are regulated together. The Zoning Administrator reviews lighting plans for new construction and additions against this standard, and the requirement applies wherever private lighting spills onto residentially zoned land, whether the source property is commercial, industrial, multi-family or another single-family lot. Because the limit is a hard footcandle number rather than a subjective "reasonable glare" standard, a complaint can be resolved with a light meter reading taken at the property line or on the affected parcel, rather than through a discretionary nuisance determination.