Outdoor Lighting in Tennessee (2026)

Chattanooga's Exterior Lighting Controls cap outdoor light spilling onto neighboring lots. Sec. 38-47(b) sets a maximum…

Franklin's 2026 Zoning Ordinance requires exterior lighting to be shielded and aimed downward, bans fixtures relying…

Non-residential light poles and building-mounted fixtures in Hendersonville must use fully shielded luminaires, capped…

Knox County has no formal dark-sky ordinance, but its Zoning Ordinance requires outdoor lighting for parking, storage…

Knoxville, Tennessee (Knox County) requires all new or altered outdoor light fixtures on nonresidential, multifamily…

Commercial, multi-family and mixed-use sites across Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County must curtail light…

Murfreesboro's zoning ordinance caps site lighting at a 35-degree shielded cutoff, limits spillover to half a…

Metro Nashville requires full cutoff outdoor light fixtures and lets commercial developers meet International Dark-Sky…

Rutherford County has no formal dark-sky ordinance, but its zoning performance standards require all site lighting to…

In unincorporated Shelby County, the Unified Development Code (UDC 4.7) sets outdoor site-lighting standards to curtail…

Sullivan County's Zoning Resolution requires all site lighting in commercial and manufacturing districts, and at…

Tennessee has no dark-sky statute, but Sumner County's Zoning Resolution (Section 1107) limits glare to 0.5…

Non-residential development in unincorporated Williamson County must aim outdoor light fixtures downward and shield…

Clarksville has adopted no dark-sky or night-sky ordinance, no lumen caps, and no color-temperature limits. The one…

Security lighting in Chattanooga must meet the one-footcandle, full-cutoff standard unless it runs on a motion vacancy…

Franklin's zoning code caps light spill: fixtures must minimize glare on neighbors, stay within a 35-degree beam angle…

Hendersonville caps light spilling from a commercial property onto a neighboring residential lot at one foot-candle…

Knox County's zoning ordinance requires outdoor lighting used for parking lots, outdoor storage, product display or…

Knoxville caps nonresidential and multi-family outdoor lighting at one footcandle at any lot line and requires shielded…

Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County require non-residential and multi-family site lighting to stay off neighboring…

Murfreesboro's zoning code caps outdoor lighting spillover: fixtures must be shielded, angled no more than 35 degrees…

Metro Nashville requires all outdoor lighting, including residential security floodlights, to be full cutoff and…

The Rutherford County Zoning Ordinance defines light trespass as light from an outdoor luminaire that shines beyond the…

In unincorporated Shelby County, the Unified Development Code (UDC 4.7) requires regulated outdoor lighting to minimize…

Sullivan County caps how much light from a commercial or manufacturing use can reach next-door residential land at four…

Sumner County's Zoning Resolution requires all site lighting to be shielded so directly emitted light stays within the…

Exterior lighting on covered development in unincorporated Williamson County cannot shine directly into a neighbor's…

Clarksville's no-spillover language is real but narrow. Zoning Ordinance 5.10 exempts single-family and two-family…

Knoxville's zoning code outlaws new billboards outright: Section 13.2.H of Appendix B lists 'billboards and other…

Chattanooga requires off-premise billboard lighting to use shielded, directional luminaries capped at two watts per…

Off-premise billboards in unincorporated Hamilton County may use only stationary illumination. Zoning Regulations Art…

Digital billboards and electronic message boards in Memphis must run ambient light monitors that automatically dim the…

Murfreesboro's sign code bars any illuminated sign, including off-site billboards, from casting direct glare into…

Metro Nashville caps billboard brightness at 200 foot-lamberts for internally lit signs or 75 footcandles for indirect…

Off-premise billboards along I-24 in unincorporated Rutherford County must use external lighting only, with no internal…