Skokie, IL Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 118-171(2)g of the Zoning Ordinance is one of the performance standards every new or altered use in an industrial district must meet before Skokie will issue a building or occupancy permit. It requires that any operation producing intense glare or heat be performed within a completely enclosed building so that it does not create a public nuisance or hazard along lot lines, and separately requires that exposed sources of light be shielded so they do not create a nuisance across lot lines, the light-trespass half of the standard.

The requirement sits inside a longer list of industrial performance standards in the same subsection covering octave-band noise limits (as low as 20 decibels at the highest frequency band along a residential boundary), vibration that is noticeable at the property line, smoke density measured on the Ringelmann chart, and odor and toxic-matter discharge, all enforced the same way: before a building or occupancy permit is issued, the Village Manager or designee can require the applicant to submit certification from a Village-approved testing laboratory showing compliance, and the Village may hire its own outside expert to test a use that is already operating.

These standards apply to the OR Office Research district as well as the M1 Office Assembly Industry, M2 Light Industry and M3 Industry districts, and unlike the parking-lot lighting rule in Section 118-212(k), the glare standard is not tied to a footcandle number: it is a performance-based nuisance test judged at the boundary of the lot.