St. Peters, MO Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 405.550 governs off-street parking and, within it, Subsection (C) sets the City's general exterior lighting standard applied to all zoning districts, not just parking lots. Subsection (C)(1) requires parking lots and walkways to be illuminated for safe use and calls for lighting studies as needed to show adequate lighting or to verify there is no light spillage or glare; it also requires exterior lighting throughout a development to promote general security. Subsection (C)(2) is the operative anti-trespass rule: light from a property cannot reflect directly, spill over onto, or glare onto adjacent properties, and lighting reaching non-adjacent properties still cannot glare or shine so as to create a nuisance, with a duty to screen, redirect, or otherwise mitigate the light if a direct glare is evident.

Subsection (C)(3) extends the same no-glare, no-hazard standard to adjacent roadways, so a site cannot blind passing drivers any more than it can flood a neighbor's yard. Subsection (C)(4) puts final sign-off with the City Engineer or an authorized representative, meaning lighting plans are reviewed at the site-plan stage rather than left to self-certification. Because this standard sits in the zoning chapter's off-street parking article, it applies broadly to commercial, institutional and multi-family site lighting citywide, and it is the same provision solar installers must satisfy under Section 405.536(B)(2) to keep panel glare off neighboring land.