Outdoor Lighting in South Carolina (2026)

The Town of Mount Pleasant bars nearly all upward-directed outdoor light. Town Code § 156.976 assigns every outdoor…

Georgetown County bans artificial light that spills onto the beach anywhere in unincorporated areas of the Waccamaw…

Aiken County requires every outdoor light fixture, whether on a pole, building wall, or used for display and…

Commercial and multifamily development in unincorporated Beaufort County must use fully shielded, cutoff light fixtures…

Unincorporated Charleston County has no countywide dark-sky or sea-turtle lighting ordinance, per SC DNR's April 2024…

Every exterior light fixture installed in Columbia, security lighting included, must be a full cut-off fixture aimed…

Dorchester County caps most freestanding light poles at 15 feet and bans aiming or focusing light into the sky, with…

Greenville County has no county-wide dark-sky ordinance for existing homes, but in its Environmentally Sensitive…

Horry County has no dedicated dark-sky or sea-turtle lighting ordinance, but Zoning Ordinance Section 410 requires…

Lexington County requires exterior lighting to be shielded or recessed so glare does not spill into a Restrictive…

The City of North Charleston caps outdoor light fixture height by zoning district and requires cutoff or full cutoff…

In the zoned areas of unincorporated Oconee County, Chapter 38, Appendix A(c) requires exterior lighting on any project…

Manufacturing uses in unincorporated Orangeburg County must fully shield outdoor light fixtures under Section 3.2 of…

Pageland requires every Tiny House pocket-neighborhood development to use IESNA full-cutoff fixtures for street…

Yes. Unincorporated Richland County has genuine dark-sky lighting standards. All new development must use full-cutoff…

Rock Hill requires full cut-off lenses or hoods on any exterior light fixture over 1,000 lumens to keep glare and…

Simpsonville's Zoning Ordinance includes dark-sky-style lighting standards (Section 4.8) intended to minimize light…

Spartanburg County has no dedicated dark-sky or International Dark-Sky ordinance. Instead, the Performance Zoning…

New outdoor light fixtures in unincorporated York County must be fully shielded, with the light source hidden inside…

In unincorporated Cherokee County, South Carolina, the downward-lighting rule is written into the solar energy system…

Aiken County bars outdoor lighting from spilling onto a neighbor's land: Section 24-5.5(6) requires every fixture to be…

Anderson County Code § 24-176 requires exterior illumination on nonresidential sites to be designed to promote safety…

Nonresidential and multifamily development in unincorporated Beaufort County cannot exceed 0.5 footcandles at any lot…

Off-street parking lot lighting in Berkeley County's arterial overlay corridors must be shielded or directed away from…

Columbia's exterior lighting standard exists specifically to keep light spillage and glare off neighboring land: Sec…

Dorchester County limits light spilling onto neighboring land to one foot-candle at non-residential property lines and…

Within unincorporated Florence County's Corridor Overlay District, County Code § 30-79.6 requires every fixture to use…

Greenville County limits light trespass through its development standards. In the Environmentally Sensitive (ESD-PM)…

Greenwood County's zoning performance standards ban glare that is visible at the property line from any nonresidential…

Horry County Zoning Ordinance Section 410 caps light spillover: no activity may cause illumination exceeding one (1)…

Lexington County caps stray light from any non-mobile source, including lit vehicle storage areas, at 1.0 foot candle…

To stop outdoor lighting from spilling onto neighboring lots, the Town of Mount Pleasant caps how much backlight a…

North Charleston caps how much light a commercial or industrial site can throw onto a neighboring residential lot…

Chapter 38, Appendix A(c)(3) tells developers in the zoned areas of unincorporated Oconee County that lighting shall…

Unincorporated Richland County caps light spilling onto neighboring property. Illumination at a property line may not…

Rock Hill caps outdoor light spilling onto neighboring land at 0.5 foot-candles measured at the property line where the…

Reducing light trespass onto neighbors is an express goal of Simpsonville's lighting standards. Fixtures must be…

The Performance Zoning Ordinance requires pole-mounted lighting fixtures to direct light inward, away from property…

York County zoning caps how much light can spill onto a neighbor's property: outdoor lighting may not exceed one-half…

Pageland's zoning code requires parking-lot lighting arranged so it doesn't interfere with adjoining residential areas…

Off-premises signs and billboards in unincorporated Beaufort County cannot have lights added once built unless…

York County bans construction of new billboards outright, and any billboard lighting is exempt from the county's…

Columbia's Unified Development Ordinance lets illuminated permanent signs, including freestanding billboards, use…

Darlington County requires outdoor advertising sign lighting to be shielded and indirect so beams never hit the street…

Illuminated billboards in Dorchester County must stand at least 400 feet, measured as a horizontal radius, from any…

In unincorporated Florence County, digital and electronic changing-message billboards must run automatic day/night…

Every billboard in unincorporated Greenville County, lit from inside or with external floodlights, must stay within the…

Horry County bans unshielded floodlights, beacons, spotlights and searchlights on any sign, including billboards, under…

Any illuminated sign in the Town of Mount Pleasant, including an off-premises billboard sited in the Light Industrial…

Billboards and other signs in unincorporated Orangeburg County may be lit indirectly or with internal illumination…

Charleston requires every sign, including the off-premises billboards allowed in the Heavy Industrial district, to…