Walla Walla County, WA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Walla Walla County Code Section 17.16.014(D) sets out the development conditions that apply to industrial and manufacturing land uses across the county's Industrial Agriculture, Light Industrial, Heavy Industrial, and Industrial/Business Park districts, and subsection (D)(2)(b) targets light trespass directly, stating that industrial and exterior lighting shall not produce glare on public highways and neighboring property. The same subsection pairs the lighting rule with a related screening requirement for high-intensity processes, requiring that arc welding, acetylene torch cutting or similar processes be screened from any point outside of the property, so the county addresses both ordinary fixture glare and process-generated light in one condition.

Because the rule is written as a development condition rather than a numeric footcandle standard, Community Development applies it at the permit-review stage for any use in the industrial land-use table, and it stays attached to the property as a standing condition of the permitted use afterward, not just a one-time design check. The same Section 17.16.014(D) list of conditions also covers noise from industrial activity, storage and handling of flammable liquids under state and county fire and building codes, electromagnetic interference shielding, odor and dust minimization, and setback and fencing requirements for outdoor storage, so the lighting condition sits inside a broader nuisance-control framework the county applies to every industrial permit rather than standing alone.

A property owner or neighbor with a glare complaint can raise it with Community Development as a condition-of-approval issue tied to the specific industrial use permit on file for that parcel.