Walton County, GA Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 7-1-150(A)(5), part of Article 7's off-street parking site standards, is Walton County's light-trespass rule, though it is written as a lighting-fixture standard rather than a stand-alone nuisance ordinance. It applies to any outdoor lighting fixture designed or placed to illuminate a parking area covered by the off-street parking requirements. Where that parking abuts a residential use, subsection (a) requires cut-off luminaire fixtures, mounted so that the cone of light does not cross any property line of the site, an explicit ban on light spilling onto a neighboring residential lot.

Subsection (b) narrows the technology itself, permitting only incandescent, fluorescent, metal halide, or color-corrected high-pressure sodium fixtures, and requires that the same lighting type be used for similar fixtures anywhere on one site, preventing a mismatched patchwork of glare sources. Subsection (c) adds a general design standard on top of the fixture rules: illumination has to be designed to restrict glare and directed internally so it minimizes impact on adjoining properties, a catch-all that applies even where the cut-off and fixture-type rules are technically met.

Because this sits inside the general parking site-requirements section, Planning and Development reviews lighting plans as part of site plan approval for any use with off-street parking, not through a separate lighting permit, and a plan that fails the cut-off or glare standards can be sent back before a permit issues.