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

Sec. 37-50.480(a) sets the city's light-trespass limit inside the general Outdoor lighting section: illumination measured at a residential (R) or "NU" district property line, covering the NE, NG-1, and NG-2 zoning designations, may not exceed one-half footcandle maximum. That half-footcandle ceiling is separate from, and stricter than, the 2.4-footcandle average the same subsection allows inside a commercial parking lot; the point of the lower number is to keep glow from spilling past the boundary onto a neighboring house or yard.

The section backs the numeric cap with a physical shielding rule: lighting located adjacent to another property or a public right-of-way must be shielded to reduce light trespass, and no portion of the lamp, including its lens and reflectors, may extend below the bottom edge of the fixture or be visible at all from the adjacent property or right-of-way. In practice that requires a full cutoff or recessed fixture design at any site boundary, not just a downward tilt.

The two commercial overlay standards in the same section carry their own trespass limits at an R or NU boundary: IGC-district vehicle display lighting and auto service-station canopy lighting must both be shielded or directed away from an adjoining R or NU district and, for canopy lighting, away from public rights-of-way as well, and both are independently capped at one-half footcandle at that boundary.

Compliance is verified before construction: the same point-to-point lighting plan required under subsection (a), showing horizontal illuminance in footcandles across the site, must demonstrate that the property-line and shielding limits are met before Salinas issues the building permit for the lighting.