SAFEbuilt Studio | Ferrell Madden
CITY OF CEDAR RAPIDS
32.04.07 Lighting Standards
PUBLIC REVIEW DRAFT
Table of Contents
32.04.07 Exterior Lighting ... 6
A. Intent ... 6
B. Applicability ... 6
C. Exemptions ... 7
D. Submittal Requirements ... 7
1. Exterior Lighting Plans ... 7
2. Exterior Lighting Plan Requirements ... 7
E. General Standards ... 8
F. Light Trespass ... 8
1. Measuring Light Trespass ... 8
2. Methods of Compliance ... 9
G. Fixture Design ... 10
1. Fixture Height ... 10
2. Canopy Lighting ... 10
3. Upward-Directed Lighting ... 10
H. Use-Type Specific Lighting ... 10
1. Residential Districts and Uses ... 10
2. Non-Residential Districts and Uses ... 11
3. Recreation Facilities ... 11
4. Uses with High-Intensity or Special-Purpose Lighting Subject to Conditional Use Review ... 12
I. Lighting Definitions (will be moved to definitions section) ... 13
1. After-hours lighting ... 13
2. Candlepower ... 13
3. Cut off angle (of a luminaire) ... 13
4. Cutoff fixture ... 13
5. Luminous flux ... 13
6. Foot candle ... 13
7. Forward throw ... 13
8. Full cutoff fixture ... 13
9. Glare ... 14
10. IESNA ... 14
11. Illuminance... 14
12. Illumination ... 14
13. Light trespass ... 14
14. Lumen (lm) ... 14
15. Luminaire ... 14
16. Luminance ... 14
17. Mounting height ... 14
18. Nadir ... 14
19. Standard light level ... 15
Drafting Note: This public review draft is being distributed to allow for community review and comment on the updated Cedar Rapids Zoning Code. Some sections and provisions of the draft are still incomplete and are subject to revision. This draft may also contain inadvertent typos and incorrect cross-references, all of which will be addressed in the next round of drafting.
32.04.07 Exterior Lighting A. Intent
The general purpose of this section is to require outdoor lighting that is adequate for safety and convenience;
in scale with the activity to be illuminated and its surroundings; directed to the surface or activity to be illuminated; and designed to clearly render people and objects and contribute to a pleasant nighttime environment in an efficient manner. Additional specific purposes are to:
1. Provide safety and personal security as well as convenience and utility in areas of public use or traverse, for uses where there is outdoor public activity during hours of darkness;
2. Permit reasonable use of outdoor lighting for nighttime safety, enjoyment, and commerce;
3. Control glare and excessive brightness to improve visual performance, allow better visibility with relatively less light, and reduce trespass light onto neighboring properties to protect inhabitants from the consequences of obtrusive light;
4. Conserve energy by reducing the use of electricity and gas and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions;
5. Control light pollution to minimize the negative effects of misdirected light and recapture views to the night sky
B. Applicability
1. Exterior lighting meeting the standards of this section shall be provided for:
a. New development; and
b. Redevelopment or expansion of any use, other than an agricultural, single-family, or two-family use, in an A-xx, U-xx, T-xx, S-xx, or PUD district.
c. The following matrix1 indicates areas that are subject to the standards of this section.
Table 32.04.07-1-: Exterior Lighting Matrix
District Adjoining District/Use of ROW
Residential O/S Other
Commercial Right-of-Way
Single Unit & Two-Unit Residential [1] Required Required Required
Multiple Unit Residential Required Required Required Required
Office/Service Required Required Required Required
Other Commercial Required Required Required
Industrial Required Required Required
Notes:
[1] Standards apply only to non-residential uses.
1 Drafting note: this table will be updated to reflect the new design areas.
C. Exemptions
The following types of lighting are exempt from the requirements of this section
1. Soffit or wall-mounted luminaires that are permanently attached to single- and two-unit residential dwellings, not to exceed the height of the eave, except as provided in Section xx, Generally Applicable Outdoor Lighting Standards.
2. Lighting for transportation corridors, public streets and rights-of-way, and abutting pedestrian
sidewalks, trails, paths, and walkways. No exemption shall apply to any street or other public right-of- way lighting when the purpose is to illuminate areas outside the public right-of-way.
3. Lighting for public monuments, statuary, and landmark sites.
4. Lighting for signage as regulated under Section xx.
5. Temporary decorative seasonal lighting.
6. Temporary lighting for emergency conditions, nighttime work and construction, theatrical, television, and performance areas, or for special public events or private events approved by the city.
7. Lighting for a special district, street, or building that, according to an adopted municipal plan or ordinance, and as approved by the Development Services Director is determined to require special lighting aesthetics as part of its physical character.
8. Lighting required and regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration or other federal or state agency.
9. Lighting for tunnels, covered parking garages (not including uncovered floors), garage entrances, and similar conditions, provided that lighting at entrances to such facilities employ full cut-off shielding to prevent light from causing glare on adjacent properties or exceeding 0.10 footcandles at the property line within or adjacent to any residential zone or 0.2 footcandles in nonresidential zones.
D. Submittal Requirements2 1. Exterior Lighting Plans
A site plan, or if no site plan is required then a scale drawing, containing the following information shall be submitted and approved prior to issuance of structural Building Permits, but preliminary building permits for site preparation, installation of utilities, and foundations may be issued prior to review of lighting information. The plan shall include at least the following
i. One scaled exterior lighting plan for lighting during operating hours, and ii. One scaled exterior lighting plan for after-hours lighting.
2. Exterior Lighting Plan Requirements Exterior lighting plans shall include:
a. The proposed location, type of lighting device, mounting height, and aiming point of all exterior lighting fixtures.
2 Drafting note: This section will be moved to the administrative provisions.
b. A detailed description of the illuminating devices, fixtures, lamps, supports, reflectors, and other devices. The description shall include manufacturer’s catalog cuts and drawings, including sections when requested;
c. A point-by-point foot candle array, photometric data, such as that furnished by manufacturers, showing the angle of the designed full cutoff, aiming angle and light emissions;
d. Average illuminance over the site and footcandles as the property line;
e. If building elevations are proposed for illumination, drawings shall be provided for all relevant building elevations showing the fixtures, the portions of the elevations to be illuminated, the illuminance levels of the elevations and the aiming point of any remote light fixture.
E. General Standards
The following standards shall apply to all outdoor lighting associated with both residential and non-residential uses.
1. Lighting fixture design and specifications should be in accordance with definitions established by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) as partially illustrated in Figure xx, below:
2. No flickering or flashing lights shall be permitted, except for temporary decorative seasonal lighting.
3. Maximum lighting level uniformity (maximum to minimum) for residential parking lots that have outdoor lighting shall be 15:1 and for nonresidential 10:1.
4. The following light fixtures and sources are permitted for use: Incandescent for single unit and two unit residential uses, fluorescent, metal halide, color-corrected high-pressure sodium, LED, magnetic induction lamps, and other light sources as permitted by the Director of Development Services.
5. The following light fixtures and sources shall not be used: low-pressure sodium and mercury vapor light sources; cobra-head type fixtures that contain dished or drop lenses or refractors; lighting on towers except as required by regulation of the Federal Aviation Administration; laser source light or any similarly high intensity light; and, searchlights and other high-intensity narrow-beam fixtures.
F. Light Trespass
1. Measuring Light Trespass
Lighting installations shall not have an adverse impact on traffic safety and shall comply with the following maximum illumination standards:
a. Agricultural, Residential, and Public Right-of-Way: Illumination measured at the property line adjoining residential uses, including residential uses in mixed-use development, and public rights-of-way shall not exceed 0.5 horizontal foot candles.
b. Commercial, Industrial, and Agricultural: Illumination measured at the property line adjoining commercial, industrial, and agricultural parcels shall not exceed 1.0 horizontal foot candles.
c. Full Cut-Off Fixture: Any luminaire rated at more than 1800 lumens shall be designed with a full cut- off fixture except those used for lighting recreational facilities, which shall comply with Section 32.04.07.H.3.
2. Methods of Compliance
a. Methods of complying with the requirements of this section, where not specifically indicated, include:
fixture shielding as partially illustrated in Figure 32.04.07-A, directional control designed into the fixture, fixture location, fixture height, and fixture aim3.
b. Any luminaire rated at more than 1800 lumens shall be designed with a full cut-off fixture except those used for lighting recreational facilities, which shall comply with Section 32.04.07.H.3.
3 Drafting note: We will add requirements and illustration for wall packs on commercial structures that do not glare across the property line.
Fig. 32.04.07-A: IESNA lighting cutoff shielding standards
G. Fixture Design 1. Fixture Height
a. Lighting fixtures located within 50 feet of property lines for existing or future residential, mixed-use, or agricultural zoning districts, shall not exceed 25 feet in height.
b. The maximum height for directional lighting fixtures (designed so that no light is emitted above a horizontal line parallel to the ground) located in areas beyond 50 feet of residential uses shall be 35 feet.
c. The maximum height for non-directional lighting fixtures shall be 15 feet and shall be translucent or have baffles to prevent direct view of the light source. Non-directional lighting is not recommended for lighting sidewalks, streets, or parking areas.
2. Canopy Lighting
a. In order to minimize direct glare, light fixtures mounted on canopies shall be recessed so that the lens cover is flush with the bottom surface of the canopy or shielded by the fixture or the edge of the canopy so that light is restrained to 85 degrees or less from horizontal.
b. As an alternative (or supplement) to recessed lighting, indirect lighting may be used where light is beamed upward and then reflected down from the underside of the canopy. When this method is used, light fixtures must be shielded so that direct light is focused exclusively on the underside of the canopy and is not visible from any single-family or two-family use adjacent to or across a street or alley from the subject property, or from any public right-of-way.
c. Lights shall not be mounted on the top or sides (fascias) of the canopy.
3. Upward-Directed Lighting
The following standards shall apply to upward-directed architectural, landscape, and decorative lighting, direct light emissions:
a. Illumination shall not be visible above the building roof line or beyond the property line,
b. The lighting source shall be located within five feet of the vertical structure that is being illuminated, c. The illumination shall not exceed an average maintained vertical footcandle measurement of 10, and d. The illumination shall not have a vertical footcandle measurement that exceeds 30.
H. Use-Type Specific Lighting 1. Residential Districts and Uses
a. Except for motion-activated security lighting and floodlighting permitted by this section, all lamps and bulbs more than 600 lumens that are located in residential zone districts shall be within a fully shielded fixture or must be within a light fixture where the bulb or lamp is obscured from view by a material that diffuses the light (e.g., frosted glass).
b. Shielded directional floodlighting must be aimed away from adjacent properties and not exceed 1800 lumens.
c. Lighting installed with a vacancy or motion sensor must be set to extinguish the light no more than 15 minutes after the area is vacated or motion ceases. Motion sensors shall not activate lighting when motion is generated from a source outside the property boundary.
d. Lighting systems that provide lighting for recreational purposes such as sports courts and similar facilities shall direct lighting downward and inward from the perimeter lot boundary, shall not exceed 16 feet in height, and shall be turned off between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
e. All lighting associated with landscaping shall comply with the requirements set forth above and shall not be aimed onto adjacent properties.
2. Non-Residential Districts and Uses
a. Controls shall be provided on all nonresidential lighting that automatically extinguish all outdoor lighting when sufficient daylight is available. Control devices or systems may be photoelectric switches, astronomic switches or equivalent functions from a programmable lighting controller, building automation system, lighting energy management system, or an equivalent system approved by the Director. Automatic controls shall not be required for tunnels, parking garages, garage entrances, and similar conditions.
b. All nonresidential uses shall extinguish all outdoor lighting or reduce it by a minimum of 50 percent in terms of lumens two hours after the close of business or activity on the site. Lighting reductions are not required for any of the following:
i. When there is only one conforming luminaire on the property;
ii. Building code required lighting for steps, stairways, walkways, trails, and building entrances;
iii. Motion-activated lighting;
iv. Security lighting;
v. Lighting governed by a conditional use or other city approval in which times of operation are specifically identified;
vi. Uses that operate on a twenty-four hour basis; or
vii. Uses that the Director of Development Services determines for purposes of safety and other public welfare considerations lighting levels must be maintained.
3. Recreation Facilities
Lighted recreational facilities shall satisfy the requirements set forth in the most current editions of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) RP-6 Recommended Practice for Sports and Recreational Area Lighting and the IESNA Lighting Handbook. Appropriate lighting criteria shall be selected based on the Class of Play of the facility and participants, as defined by the IESNA.
a. No outdoor recreational facility, public or private, shall be illuminated after 10:00 p.m. except to conclude a specific activity which is in progress under such illumination prior to 10:00 p.m.
b. Luminaires shall be installed to meet the criteria of a cutoff fixture.
c. Luminaires shall be aimed no greater than a distance two mounting heights or less from the base of the pole (a maximum angle of 63 degrees up from nadir or a minimum of 27 degrees down from horizontal), displayed as follows:
d. Light trespass attributable to the recreational facility lighting system shall not exceed one-half (0.5) initial horizontal foot candles and two initial vertical foot candles on adjacent properties within a residential zoning district, except public ways.
e. Initial illumination levels shall not exceed the target levels specified by the IESNA by more than 30% to account for light loss factors such as lamp lumen depreciation and luminaire dirt depreciation.
4. Uses with High-Intensity or Special-Purpose Lighting Subject to Conditional Use Review4
The following uses with high-intensity or special-purpose lighting shall be subject to the issues of a conditional use permit that imposes appropriate conditions on the proposed use to mitigate any potential adverse impacts of outdoor lighting associated with the use.
a. Very Intense Lighting
Any use that proposes light that exceeds:
i. 200,000 lumens or an intensity in any direction of more than two million candelas such as aerial lasers, searchlights, or other directional luminaire.
ii. Temporary lighting in which any single luminaire exceeds 20,000 lumens or the total lighting load exceeds 160,000 lumens.
b. Complex, Special Purpose Lighting
Any lighting not complying with the technical requirements of this Code that is used for special purposes such as construction site lighting, lighting for industrial sites with special requirements such as petrochemical manufacturing or storage, theme and amusement parks, decorative and architectural lighting of bridges and overpasses, and similar uses as determined by the Development Services Manager.
4 Drafting note: flag these uses in the use table.
I. Lighting Definitions (will be moved to definitions section) 1. After-hours lighting
A reduction of standard light levels by 75% during the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. through the means of a control system or systems for outdoor general area lighting.
2. Candlepower
Luminous intensity of a light in a specified direction measured in candelas (cd) (e.g., an ordinary wax candle has a candlepower of one candela).
3. Cut off angle (of a luminaire)
The angle, measured up from nadir, between the vertical axis and the first line of sight at which the light source is not visible, displayed as follows:
4. Cutoff fixture
A luminaire which has a light distribution where the candlepower does not exceed 2.5% of the lamps’ rated initial lumen output at an angle of 90 degrees above nadir, and does not exceed 10% of the lamps’ rated initial lumen output at a vertical angle of 80 degrees above nadir. This applies to all lateral angles around the luminaire.
5. Luminous flux
A quantitative expression of the brilliance of a source of visible light measured in lumens.
6. Foot candle
A unit of illumination when one lumen is evenly distributed on a one square foot area.
7. Forward throw
Any downlight luminaire whose distribution pattern is Type IV (as defined by the IESNA). These luminaires have minimal backlight effect, thereby reducing light trespass.
8. Full cutoff fixture
A luminaire which has a light distribution where the candlepower does not exceed 0% of the lamps’ rated initial lumen output at an angle of 90 degrees above nadir, and does not exceed 10% of the lamps’ rated initial lumen output at a vertical angle of 80 degrees above nadir. This applies to all lateral angles around the luminaire.
9. Glare
The sensation produced by luminances within the visual field that are sufficiently greater than the luminance to which the eyes are adapted to cause annoyance, discomfort, or loss in visual performance and visibility.
10. IESNA
The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.
11. Illuminance
Lumens per unit area incident on a surface, measured in foot candles (1FC = 1 lm/sf).
12. Illumination
An alternative term for illuminance, most commonly used to avoid confusion between illuminance and luminance (e.g., it can be used in a qualitative sense to designate the act of illuminating or quantitatively by stating level of illumination).
13. Light trespass
Light falling beyond the intended target area where it is not wanted or needed, including, by way of illustration but not necessarily limited to, across property boundaries.
14. Lumen (lm)
A unit of luminous flux (e.g., 1800 lumens is the approximate equivalent to a 100 watt incandescent bulb).
15. Luminaire
A complete lighting unit consisting of a lamp or lamps together with the components designed to distribute the light, such as reflectors, refractors, lenses, etc.
16. Luminance
The luminous intensity of a surface in a given direction per unit of projected area (e.g., candela/sf). This is not to be confused with ILLUMINANCE.
17. Mounting height
The vertical distance from the face of the luminaire to the surface area intended to be lit.
18. Nadir
The vertical line projecting downward to the ground from the center of the lens of a luminaire, displayed as follows:
19. Standard light level
Maximum light level approved for the property.
