Outdoor Lighting in Minnesota (2026)

Yard lights in unincorporated Carver County get a narrow setback exemption under § 152.034(C)(2): they can sit as close…

Maple Grove requires outdoor lighting to be hooded and aimed away from neighboring homes and streets, and caps light…

Minneapolis caps site lighting at half a footcandle on residential lot lines and requires cutoff fixtures above 2,000…

Olmsted County's zoning ordinance caps outdoor light spilling onto public roads at 1.0 foot-candle and onto adjacent…

Ramsey County has no dark-sky ordinance. Exterior lighting and glare are municipal zoning matters under Minn. Stat…

Saint Paul's zoning code requires all outdoor lighting citywide, including parking lot lighting, to be shielded to cut…

Scott County Zoning Ordinance No. 3, Section 4-5 limits outdoor lighting to cut glare and light pollution: commercial…

Zoning Ordinance 62 defines "Dark Sky Compliant" lighting as illumination that restricts upward-directed light, avoids…

Stearns County's zoning ordinance requires that lighting for off-street parking areas, signs and other structures be…

Washington County's Development Code requires outdoor lighting fixtures illuminating parking areas, structures or other…

In Woodbury, single-family residential outdoor lights that aren't properly aimed are a code violation. City Code Sec…

Wright County has no dark-sky mandate, but Chapter 155 §155.080 requires outdoor lighting to be hooded and aimed away…

Security and parking-area lighting in unincorporated Carver County cannot send glare toward a public road or a…

Commercial and semipublic uses on Dakota County shoreland must shield outdoor lighting in the shore impact zone so it…

Maple Grove requires outdoor lighting near parking areas, signs, and other structures to be hooded or shielded so it…

Minneapolis caps outdoor lighting spillover at one-half footcandle onto the nearest residential property line and five…

Olmsted County's zoning code bans light trespass onto neighboring land: outdoor fixtures in every district it zones…

Ramsey County sets no light-trespass rule. Whether a neighbor's light spilling onto your property violates a standard…

Saint Paul requires exterior building-illumination lighting, the kind typically used for security floodlights, to be…

Scott County caps light spilling onto neighbors at 0.4 foot-candle at the property line and 1.0 foot-candle at a road…

Washington County caps how much light an outdoor fixture can throw onto a neighbor's land: no more than four-tenths of…

In Woodbury, nonresidential and licensed multi-family properties can't cast more than one footcandle of light onto a…

Wright County caps light crossing onto a neighbor at 0.4 foot-candle at the residential property line and 1.0…

Carver County bans flashing or rotating sign lights outright and requires any floodlight on a sign to be aimed at the…

Off-premises billboards in Minneapolis's General Billboard District are lighting-capped at 7,000 nits from 6 a.m. to 9…

Olmsted County has no lighting rule written specifically for billboards, but its general exterior lighting standard…

Digital billboards and other dynamic-display signs in Saint Paul cannot exceed 0.3 footcandles above ambient light…

Stearns County's zoning ordinance limits how billboards and other signs can be lit. Flashing, rotating-beam…

Washington County treats billboard illumination as an 'outdoor light fixture' under its Development Code, meaning…