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

Rochester's citywide lighting standard in § 120-170A(1), which Article XX applies to every zoning district, is written as a flat prohibition: no use may produce a strong, dazzling light, or a reflection of one, or glare that is visible from any point along a lot line. That test is measured at the property line itself, not at the source, so a fixture that's shielded but still throws a visible glare onto a neighbor's yard or the sidewalk fails the standard regardless of the fixture's wattage or design.

The same section separately requires service-area lighting to stay inside the service yard boundary with no spillover outside it and the light source not visible from the street (Subsection A(5)), and bars unshielded exterior floodlights on building walls except for security lighting inside an enclosed courtyard (Subsection A(6)). Together these provisions function as Rochester's light-trespass rule: whatever a property's own lighting plan calls for, the light itself can't cross the line onto a neighbor's property or the public right-of-way as a dazzling glare. Lighting plans for site-plan-reviewed projects are checked against this standard by the Director of Zoning and Permitting under § 120-192, and a property owner cited for trespassing glare can seek relief only through the administrative adjustment or variance process in §§ 120-191 and 120-195, not by claiming the fixture meets some other code's photometric standard.