North Haven Dark Sky Lighting: Working Within the Village’s 11:00 P.M. Rules

North Haven has adopted unusually clear residential exterior-lighting standards intended to reduce glare across property lines, protect residents, improve roadway conditions, and preserve darkness for nocturnal wildlife and insects.

Building outline lighting

For homeowners, the rules affect more than decorative landscape lighting. They may also apply to pathway lights, security fixtures, pool lighting, holiday lighting, building-outline lighting, and private streetlighting maintained by an HOA.

North Haven’s Core Lighting Standards

Important Village requirements include:

• Outdoor landscape, pool, holiday, and building-outline lighting turned off by 11:00 p.m.

• Limited exceptions for appropriate pathway and security lighting and certain entrance fixtures

• Fully shielded outdoor fixtures

• No visible light source beyond the property line

• A maximum of 450 lumens and 2700K for most outdoor light sources

• Special restrictions for unshielded market string lights

• Stricter color-temperature expectations for private HOA streetlighting

• Motion detectors adjusted so activity outside the property does not trigger the fixture

These are not standards that should be addressed after fixtures have already been installed. Output, shielding, color temperature, and controls need to be established during design.

How HLL Designs in North Haven

Hamptons Landscape Lighting begins with the Village limits and typically designs below them.

A North Haven plan may use:

• 2200K to 2700K light

• Fixtures below the 450-lumen maximum whenever the task allows

• Fully shielded path, step, and marker lights

• Controlled downlighting

• Minimal landscape uplighting

• Dedicated zones for pool, landscape, entertaining, entrance, and circulation lighting

• Automatic 11:00 p.m. shutoff for nonessential zones

• Carefully calibrated motion sensors

• No lamp source visible from neighboring properties, roads, harbors, or water

Low-output limits do not prevent a property from feeling well lit. They require the light to be placed more intelligently.

Pool Lighting and Outdoor Entertaining

North Haven specifically includes pool lighting in its 11:00 p.m. shutoff expectations.

HLL coordinates underwater pool fixtures with the surrounding landscape. A brightly illuminated pool can dominate the entire nighttime scene, particularly when the surrounding landscape is comparatively dark.

We develop an entertaining scene that balances the pool, terrace, dining area, pathways, and selected plantings. At the end of the evening, the pool and decorative zones can turn off automatically while permissible entrance or circulation lighting remains available.

Pathway and Security Lighting

The Village recognizes that certain lighting may be needed for circulation or security, but that does not mean those fixtures should be bright, unshielded, or continuously intrusive.

HLL uses shielded fixtures that place light on the walking surface. Motion sensors are positioned and calibrated so passing vehicles, pedestrians, neighboring activity, or movement outside the property does not trigger the lights.

Ongoing System Care

A North Haven system should be inspected as landscaping changes. Vegetation can block a fixture, prompting someone to tilt it outward or install a brighter lamp. That may create off-property visibility or exceed the intended output.

Brilliance Care™ helps preserve compliance through cleaning, repositioning, re-aiming, lamp verification, control testing, and schedule updates.

North Haven’s standards favor the same qualities that define sophisticated landscape lighting: warmth, precision, visual comfort, and restraint.