Washington County, UT Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Washington County's light-trespass rule sits in the same outdoor lighting chapter as the shielding standard, Title 10 Chapter 15C (Ord. 2024-1271-O), and applies within the same four designated districts named in § 10-15C-2: the New Harmony Valley Overlay Zone, Pine Valley Overlay Zone, Scenic Byway Overlay Zone and Kolob Area. Under § 10-15C-4(B), every fixture must be aimed and shielded so the direct illumination stays inside the property line of the parcel where it originates; lighting cannot be aimed onto a neighbor's lot at all, except for shared parking areas, shared pedestrian paths, or a coordinated multi-parcel development approved by the Community Development Director or designee.

Trespass onto the adjacent public right-of-way is not automatically allowed either: § 10-15C-4(C) requires the same director's sign-off before any light is permitted to spill across the road frontage. The chapter also targets motion-activated fixtures: under § 10-15C-4(E), a motion sensor cannot be triggered by activity happening off the lit property, and the light it controls must shut off within ten minutes of the last detected motion, closing a common loophole where a security floodlight stays on all night pointed at a neighbor's yard. Section 10-15C-4(D) separately bans floodlights, spotlights and unshielded fixtures outright unless an exemption in § 10-15C-9(C) applies, and any resulting glare or light pollution is itself a violation, not just the trespass.

Outside the four overlay districts, the countywide general provision in § 10-15C-2 still forbids placing a fixture at a location, angle or height that creates light trespass, though without the property-boundary and motion-sensor detail found in § 10-15C-4.