Parking Lot Lighting Specifications Every GC Should Standardize on for New Commercial Builds

Last Updated on 31 December 2025

Key takeaways

• Standard lighting specs reduce RFIs and change orders, and night punch lists on each and every project.
• Lighting influences safety, liability and how owners perceive your work well after turnover.
• Lighting coordination at the early stage with designers; subs; utilities saves you from expensive rework
• Standards help your team to do what is working repeatedly rather than creating lighting for each job.

Why Parking Lots Lighting specs matter more than you think

So, if you’re building commercial sites, you are already familiar with people complaining about lighting before nearly anything else.

I came into a new retail center with an owner one night. Beautiful building, neat striping, good landscaping. The first words out of his mouth: “Why is that corner so dark?” That one black parking spot by the dumpster became additional fixtures, trenching, and a contentious discussion on “who should have caught this.”

Poor lighting lends itself to slip and fall claims, fender benders and security complaints. Inspectors/ insurance reps look at exterior lighting since it has an impact on risk

Ask yourself, do you think you would be comfortable sending your family through your finished parking lots in the middle of the night? If your honest answer is “not always” then your specs need work.

Core Lighting Perf. Requirements Every GC Should Lock In

You do not need to be a lighting designer but you should lock in basic levels of performance.
For most commercial parking lots, standard guidance from the Federal Energy Management Program cites a minimum horizontal illuminance of 0.2 footcandles for basic conditions and 0.5 footcandles for enhanced security areas, with specific uniformity ratios to limit dark spots and bright hotspots.

IES recommends average light levels of about 1 to 2 foot candela and higher light levels in areas for entrances, crosswalks and loading areas. That provides sufficient lighting so that drivers can make visual contact with pedestrians, and that cameras can get enough of a kick-up as to clear the material to do useful photography.

Uniformity is as important as brightness. A max-to-min ratio of approximately 4:1 or higher ensures that you will not have bright hotspots and black holes. I have seen layouts with the same average but one was safe and the other sketchy.

Add simple language in your specs , required average, minimum and uniformity. That in itself lifts the floor on each project.

LED Fixture Specifications to Standardize Between Projects

Too many specs still speak in terms of wattage instead of lumens. You want performance, not just power suckage.

A minimum lumen output per pole of your typical site size with a light level of at least L70 at 100,000 hours is a good example of a specification for LED fixtures. Most quality LED lighting products hit that, and the owners appreciate the lesser number of bucket truck visits.

Federal building standards such as the GSA PBS-P100 include criteria for exterior lighting systems, specifying solid-state luminaires (LEDs) and proper control configurations to meet performance, safety, and energy efficiency goals.

Pick a color temperature (typically 4000K for commercial parking lots) with a CRI of 70 or higher. It appears clean but does not look harsh.

Use optics which keep lighting on the pavement, not in bedroom windows. Type III or IV , around drive lanes, Type V , big open areas Require IP65 or better housings, with corrosion resistant finishes in coastal or industrial locations. One national client of mine was able to reduce maintenance calls in half just by standardizing fixture families.

Pole Heights, Layout and Structure Requirements

Pole height is where a lot of the projects deviate. One engineer goes with 20 feet, another with 30 and next thing you know your supers are fighting over different details.

Pick one or two standard heights and pick them and create an example of your typical layouts, such as 25 and 30 feet. Taller poles generally means there will be a lower number of poles and much smoother even light, however, you do need to check on the height limit in your locality.

Foundations are more important than people admit. I have seen poles sway in places within two winters because someone ignored wind loads or anchor bolt patterns. ASCE wind data for your area is available online and always has a standard pole base detail in your set of templates.

Early coordinate pole locations with civil and landscape. Moving a pole when paving, irrigation and trees are in place is painful and expensive.

Controls, Energy Codes and Smart Features

Energy codes continue to get stricter and stricter and lighting control is where many projects fail.
Most jurisdictions now anticipate automatic shutdown, scheduling, and in some cases bi-level lighting during low traffic hours. A simple way of doing this works: photocell for dusk to dawn, time clock or controller to dim or deliver to turn off part of the lighting after business hours, with some emergency lighting kept on for egress.

I once saw a site where the electrician would have everything on one over ride switch in the electrical room. The manager plugged it on and never touched it again. The owner paid for full lighting during all hours of the night for years on end.

Standardize a basic control sequence, and require that your electrical subs submit this. If you suspect that the owner may possibly want smart lighting in the future, specify control-ready fixtures and an unused conduit run.

Safety, Security, and Code Issues

Lighting is not simply a comfort feature, it is a part of your safety system.

Good lighting helps cameras to capture faces and number plate details not silhouettes. But security teams can see what she is doing in parking lots and not have to guess what is in the shadows. CPTED ideas are simple here: Keeping the entrances, walkways and gathering spots in clear, even light, with no hiding spots near building corners or dumpsters.

Tie exterior lighting to egress paths from doors to safe areas, and to fire lanes. Fire marshals look for hydrants, FDCs and access roads sitting in the dark.

Local ordinances may put a cap on light at property lines or restrict the height of poles. Build a quick checklist for every jurisdiction so that you do not do the same code surprises over and over again.

Parking Lot Lights: Product Selection and Standard Product Families

This is when you can make your life easy on every bid.

Pick one or two families of parking lot lights that you trust. Except in projects where the owner has strict standards, use them across projects. That way your estimators know what the pricing is, your supers know the hardware and your subs stop “value engineering” down to mystery brands.

Write Clean Spec Language Minimum warranty on drivers and LEDs 5 to 10 years Required test reports Photometric files Spell out what “or equal” really means, so you do not find yourself with bargain imports that quit in 3 winters.

And when owners have some national standards, compare their preferred products to yours. Sometimes its possible to match optics and performance and attain internal consistency.

Photometrics & Documentation GCs Should require everytime

Photometric layouts are not restricted to big box sites. They are your proof that the lighting design will meet your expectations.

Require complete package site plan complete isofootcandle contours, point by point grid, mounting heights, aiming details For example, I once remember having a PM walk toward a rear door and being able to see a dark pocket there. One pole in the design moved on paper instead of you moving concrete later on.

Train your team to look for three things: average light levels, uniformity and dark corners near entrances, dumpsters and loading docks. It takes five minutes.

For closeout, provide final fixture schedule, pole map and control narrative to its owner. Three years later, when they call about a dark row that packet saves everybody time.

Cost, Maintenance, and Life-Cycle

Owners are interested in the first cost, but they live with the lighting system for decades.

I walked one client through two options, cheaper fixtures, which have a shorter life, and higher quality lighting solutions with better drivers and coatings. Over 10 years, the “expensive” option saved them on energy, lift rentals and staff time. They selected the better package at the sight of math per square foot.

Standardizing fixtures allows you to suggest work edges or production heads or drivers on every undertaking. The maintenance team likes the fact that they don’t need to run around looking for model numbers to interchange the part.

Build simple inspection into the plan of the owner: yearly inspections of bases, anchors, and hardware; cleaning of lenses to keep even light and reduce loss of light. It is so simple, and many sites just don’t get it.

Creating Your GC Parking Lot Lighting Standard

If you feel like lighting is done from scratch on every project you are not alone.

Create a master spec that covers fixture performance, poles and bases, lighting controls, photometrics and documentation. Pitch it along with a little detail that your teams are aware of. Start small, and then improve with some experience of projects.

Roll it out with some short training with PM’s, supers and estimators. Demonstrate to them the way these lighting standards reduce headaches. On special projects such as a hospital or a parking garage, you can bump the light levels or make changes to details without discarding the entire book.

Over time, you will notice a lesser number of surprises, improved lighting, upgrades and lastly, I’m pretty sure I will have fewer late night calls about “why is this area so dark?” That is when you have the knowledge that your standard is working.