Florida has no statute limiting light spilling onto a neighbor's yard, and away from the turtle-lighting coast St. Johns County addresses glare only through its Land Development Code lighting standards. A bothered neighbor's main tool is a common-law nuisance claim.
No Florida statute governs residential light trespass, and St. Johns County has no ordinance aimed at a floodlight shining from one home onto another. The county's Land Development Code sets exterior lighting standards - shielding and spillover limits - mainly during site-plan review of new commercial and multifamily projects, not for an existing single-family fixture in Nocatee or the Ponte Vedra suburbs. Two tools remain for a neighbor. Recorded HOA covenants, common in the county's planned communities, often restrict glare and require shielded fixtures. Failing that, a common-law private-nuisance suit lets a court order an unreasonable light shielded, redirected, or dimmed. On the coast, the separate sea-turtle Light Management Plan controls beachfront glare.
The county does not cite neighbor-to-neighbor light trespass. Relief comes through an HOA covenant complaint or a private-nuisance suit, where a court can order the offending light shielded, redirected, or dimmed.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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See how St. Augustine Beach's light trespass rules stack up against other locations.
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