Wayne County, IN Outdoor Lighting: Light Trespass & Shielding (2026)

Section 156.399 governs development and maintenance of every public or private off-street parking area in the county, including motor vehicle and trailer sale lots. Division (D) is the county's light-trespass rule: it requires that any lighting used to illuminate an off-street parking area be arranged so it reflects the light away from adjoining premises, rather than toward neighboring land. That duty sits alongside the section's other buffering requirements. Division (A) requires parking areas for more than five vehicles to be screened on any side that adjoins or faces an institutional use or a residential (R) district with a masonry wall or solid fence at least four feet high, rising to a full masonry wall once the lot holds more than 30 vehicles.

Division (B) bars a parking area for more than five vehicles from coming within ten feet of a dwelling, school, hospital or similar institution on an adjoining lot unless an unpierced masonry wall screens it, and keeps vehicle entrances for lots of 25 or more cars, trucks or buses at least 200 feet from a school, playground, church, hospital or library along the same street. Together the screening and lighting rules target the same goal: keeping glare and visual intrusion off neighboring residential and institutional land. The Wayne County Plan Commission and Zoning Administrator review compliance when a parking lot is built, enlarged or its use is intensified.