San Antonio, TX Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 35-392(a) of the Unified Development Code covers lighting for signs, parking areas, or "other purposes, including high intensity residential lighting and light from residentially used properties," and requires the source of light to be "concealed from adjacent residential properties" and arranged so it does not interfere with traffic. Subsection (a)(1) sets the trigger: any fixture installed on residential property that produces zero or more foot-candles measured at the property line must be full cutoff, meaning no light output above 90 degrees at any lateral angle around the fixture, effectively a total-containment standard for residential lots that abut a neighbor.

For off-street parking and loading areas, subsection (b) caps fixture height as a glare and spillover control: 30 feet where the light source cuts off at an angle under 90 degrees, and 15 feet where the cutoff angle is 90 degrees or greater; subsections (c) and (d) repeat those same two height caps verbatim, a codification duplication carried through multiple re-adoptions of the section. The section has been amended three times since its 2005 origin, most recently by Ordinance No. 2022-11-03-0831, effective January 1, 2023.

Section 35-392 also governs accessory lighting elsewhere in the UDC: golf course driving ranges must deflect light away from abutting residential uses under subsection 6-231(d)(1), and temporary event parking lots and mobile food courts are both required to comply with section 35-392 directly. Because 35-392 sits in Article III (Zoning) of the code, a violation is prosecuted as a zoning violation under section 35-491(c)(2) rather than under the general nuisance or noise chapters.