Outdoor Lighting in Minnesota (2026)

In every district of the City of Apple Valley, Minnesota, lighting for off-street parking areas and signs must deflect…

In the City of Blaine, Sec. 129-2 requires downcast, shielded fixtures for lighting commercial, industrial…

Brooklyn Park's zoning code caps outdoor light fixtures at 15 feet within 250 feet of any residential-zoned property…

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

Any Duluth light fixture that emits more than 900 lumens, roughly a 60-watt incandescent bulb, must be shielded with a…

City Code Section 11.08, Subdivision 3 caps pole lighting at 25 feet on a 3 foot base, twenty-eight feet total, and…

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…

In the City of Minnetonka, Minnesota (Hennepin County), section 300.28 subdivision 2 requires exterior lighting to use…

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

The City of Plymouth regulates exterior lighting under Zoning Code Section 21105.06 to cut sky glow, glare and light…

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…

In the City of Apple Valley, Minnesota, light cast on an adjacent residential property cannot exceed 1/2 foot candle as…

In the City of Blaine, Sec. 129-2(c) caps light spilling onto a residentially zoned property at 0.4 footcandle measured…

Brooklyn Park requires every outdoor light source to be shielded so it cannot be seen from off the property, capping…

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

Section 11-1207.1(12) of the Coon Rapids zoning code caps outdoor lighting at three footcandles measured at the…

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

Duluth caps exterior lighting at the property line for multi-family, commercial, institutional and industrial sites…

In the City of Eagan, City Code Sec. 11.70, Subd. 21.D.8 requires on-site lighting at multi-family, commercial…

In the City of Eden Prairie, outdoor lighting may not throw more than 0.5 foot candles measured at the property line…

In the City of Lakeville, Minnesota, exterior lighting must not spill onto neighboring land. City Code caps cumulative…

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…

In the City of Minnetonka, Minnesota (Hennepin County), reflected glare or spill light from exterior lighting cannot…

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

The City of Plymouth limits how much light a property can throw onto a neighbor's land. Zoning Code Section 21105.06…

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…

Blaine requires dynamic, electronic billboard lighting to be set at the minimum level needed for viewing and shielded…

Billboards in the City of Brooklyn Park's I General Industrial District must have any illumination shielded so the…

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

Duluth regulates billboard illumination separately from ordinary business-sign lighting. Under the Unified Development…

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…

Plymouth caps how bright an off-premises dynamic display sign can be: 7,500 nits during daylight and 500 nits between…

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…