Pottstown, PA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

The light-trespass standard sits at Section 512(1), 'Purpose,' inside Part 5, 'Design,' of Chapter 22, the Pottstown Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance, added by Ordinance 1985 on October 12, 2004. It requires that all exterior lighting on a reviewed development or subdivision plan be installed so it does not adversely affect motorists, pedestrians and adjacent properties, and directs that lighting intensities be controlled so light spillage and glare are not directed at adjacent properties, neighboring areas, motorists or the sky. The next subsection, 512(2), 'Types,' backs this purpose clause with the concrete fixture requirement: exterior lighting must be integrated with the building's architecture and use downcast or cutoff-type fixtures on pedestrian and traffic corridors and signage, which is what actually keeps the glare off a neighbor's yard rather than merely stating the goal.

Section 512 also points to Appendix Sections A512 through A516 for further design detail, filed as separate plan attachments at the Borough office. This purpose clause runs alongside Section 511's separate requirement for physical buffers, fences four to five feet high or a fifteen-foot landscaped strip, wherever a nonresidential use abuts a residential use, so a project causing light trespass near a home can need to satisfy both the lighting purpose clause and the buffering section. Because Chapter 22 governs subdivision and land-development approval, the purpose clause is applied by the Borough Engineer and Planning Commission at plan review, not as a stand-alone nuisance code a neighbor can invoke against an already-built, previously approved property.