Pathway and Parking Area Lighting

Lighting in outdoor spaces increases visibility, contributing to increased perceptions of safety and pedestrian street use after dark, as well as reduced opportunity for crime.

Key Terms

• Pedestrian-Scale Lighting provides light fixtures that direct light at typical human heights rather than from above. Examples may include grounded lights that direct light upwards, lighting placed at human-height level along building exteriors, and human-height pole, bollard, and lamp lighting.

Strategy Insights

• Municipal lighting fixtures may qualify.  
• Projects may choose to omit any on-site outdoor and/or rooftop areas if they are closed and inaccessible during dark/nighttime hours. 
• Lighting emanating from indoor spaces does not qualify and qualifying lighting must be exterior-sourced.
• Site-wide strategy: this strategy is applicable to all “outdoor areas on the building site;” therefore, it is applicable to all outdoor areas located within the building and site, not only the ones accessible to the regular occupants. 
• A project cannot pursue Not Applicable if the building includes on-site outdoor spaces.

Documentation Guidance

• For photographs, please annotate each to indicate which outdoor space is being shown.
• For annotated lighting plans, indicate the types of lights shown with symbols and clarify whether more than one lighting fixture type is included.
• Ensure all on-site spaces – including rooftops, terraces, and patios – are included.
• Nighttime photographs are preferred in order to demonstrate even illumination. However, daytime photographs may be submitted provided they are annotated and accompanied by a lighting plan confirming even illumination.

Example Documentation

Documentation credit to Podium Developments