Ridgewood, NJ Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Chapter 194, Lighting, was adopted by the Village Council on August 27, 1985 by Ordinance No. 2003 to keep household and yard lighting in the Village of Ridgewood's residential zones from becoming a nuisance to neighbors. Section 194-1 states the purpose plainly: interior and exterior lighting in residential zones is regulated to prevent it from becoming a nuisance contrary to the health, safety and welfare of residents. The operative rule sits in § 194-2, amended October 13, 1992 by Ordinance No. 2375: no artificial light source, whether an exterior floodlight, a landscape fixture, or light escaping through windows, may be constructed or utilized in a residential district so as to create a nuisance across a property lot line.

Any exposed light source must be shielded so its illumination, from interior or exterior origin, never exceeds one footcandle at any point along a property lot line in a residential zone. The one-footcandle ceiling is measured at the boundary itself, not at the fixture, so a floodlight aimed away from a neighbor can still violate the section if enough light still reaches the line. An editor's note ties 'residential districts' to the zoning districts enumerated in Chapter 190, Land Use and Development, so the cap applies wherever Chapter 190 designates a residential zone, not in the Village's business or industrial districts. Chapter 194 carries no separate penalty clause of its own, so a violation is punished under the Village-wide general penalty in § 1-15.