Kootenai County, ID Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

1304 of the Kootenai County Land Use Development Code, Standards Common To Light Industrial And Industrial Zones, sets the performance standards every commercial, manufacturing, and industrial use must meet in those two zones, and illumination is one of them. 2 foot-candle at the edge of the parcel or parcels on which the use is located. That is a hard numeric ceiling, not a discretionary standard the board can waive case by case the way it can for a special event or a conditional use; it applies automatically to the zone once a business is operating.

1304 is the standard that reaches every day-to-day commercial and industrial operation in the Light Industrial and Industrial zones without a separate permit trigger. It sits alongside the same section's other performance standards, fire and explosion precautions tied to the county's building code, direct road access, good housekeeping, flammable material limits, and the noise table in subsection H, so a business that is bright at the property line is often also the business a neighbor complains about for noise or outdoor storage at the same time.

2 foot-candle; the county standard yields to the higher law in that narrow case. Absent such an override, every Light Industrial and Industrial zone business is expected to measure and shield its lighting to that ceiling before occupancy. (Ord. 493, 6-9-2016)