How do we add or replace lighting on HOA walking paths and trails?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 23, 2026

How an HOA board lights walking paths and trails: bollards or poles, solar or wired, glare and sea turtle rules, who can wire it, 811, the vote and a timeline.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Light the path for people walking it, not for the houses next to it. Walk the trail after dark with a flashlight and a notepad, mark the spots where someone could trip or lose the path, and light those first: intersections, steps, curves, bridges, benches and the ends where the path meets a street. Low, shielded fixtures with warm light do that job with the fewest complaints. Decide early whether you want hard-wired fixtures, low-voltage fixtures on a transformer, or solar units, because that choice drives the cost, who can install them and how long they last. Pull permits where your city requires them, call 811 before anyone digs, and vote at an open meeting. Lighting rules come from your city or county, and some come from state law, and your governing documents may add their own, so check all three. This guide is general education, not legal advice.

Decide what the light is for

Boards get into trouble when they try to make a trail as bright as a parking lot. A walking path needs enough light to see the edge of the pavement, a step or a root, and a person coming the other way. Security lighting is a different goal. If the real worry is cars broken into at the trailhead or teenagers in the pocket park at 1 a.m., say so in the board packet and light that one spot, rather than running poles down a half-mile greenbelt. Before you ask for bids, make a simple map: the path drawn on the plat, each problem spot numbered, and a note on what is there now. Mark existing fixtures and who owns them. Some poles near paths belong to the electric utility and are billed to the association on a monthly lighting rate. You can ask the utility to change or remove those, but your contractor cannot touch them. Our guide on how to handle an owner request for a new HOA street light explains the utility-owned option and its long contracts.

Bollards, poles or solar

Bollards are short posts with the light near the top, and they put light on the ground where feet are. They suit paths that run close to back yards because the light stays low. Short poles cover more distance per fixture and survive mowers, but they throw light farther and are more likely to reach a bedroom window. Low-voltage fixtures run from a transformer plugged into or wired to a power source. They are cheaper to trench because the cable can be shallow, and the fixtures are easy to move. Hard-wired line-voltage fixtures cost more up front and last the longest. Solar units skip the trench, which matters on a long trail with no power nearby, but read the fine print. Ask how many hours the unit runs after a cloudy day in December, when the battery has to be replaced and what a replacement battery costs, and whether the panel will sit in a tree's shade by summer. Under heavy tree cover, solar is usually the wrong pick. On an open path far from power, it can be the right one.

Keep the light on the path

The complaint you will get is glare, from an owner whose bedroom faces the trail. Prevent it in the specification. Ask for fully shielded fixtures that send no light above the horizontal, and for warm color, not the blue-white of older LED retrofits. A 2017 report for the Department of Energy's lighting program found that eliminating uplight from LED street lights cut their contribution to sky glow by 95 percent or more for an observer 40 kilometers away. The same report says color temperature alone is not a reliable predictor of sky glow, but that LEDs with less short-wavelength light, often the lower color temperature products, reduce it further near the source. Before the vote, put one sample fixture on a temporary stake at the worst spot and invite the owners on that stretch to look from their windows. Ask for timers or photocells with a set shutoff time if the path closes at night, and motion-sensing fixtures where a trail is rarely used after dark. Our guide on how to handle a complaint about glare from an HOA streetlight walks through fixes after the fact.

Rules in Florida, Texas and Colorado

In Florida, coastal communities have the strictest rules. Section 161.163 of the Florida Statutes directs the state to designate sea turtle nesting areas and adopt guidelines for local beachfront lighting rules. Florida Administrative Code rule 62B-55.004 adopts the state's model lighting ordinance as guidance for cities and counties. The model covers any property whose light is visible from the beach, directly or indirectly, not only beachfront lots. It calls for long-wavelength light of 560 nanometers or more, fully shielded and mounted as low as possible, and it limits paths and walkways to low fixtures such as step, paver and bollard lights, with bollards no taller than 42 inches. The model only binds where a city or county adopts it, so get your local ordinance and its nesting season dates. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission keeps a list of certified wildlife lighting fixtures. In Texas, Local Government Code section 240.032 requires counties any part of which lies within 57 miles of the McDonald Observatory to regulate outdoor lighting in unincorporated areas. Health and Safety Code chapter 425 covers only lights paid for with state funds, so it does not reach an association's trail. In Colorado, start with your city or county code. Section 38-33.3-106.7(1)(b)(IV) of the Colorado Revised Statutes bars an association from effectively prohibiting energy-efficient outdoor lighting on an owner's property, which matters for owners' lights, not for the association's own fixtures.

Who can wire it, and calling 811

Licensing rules differ, and they affect your bids. Texas Occupations Code section 1305.003(a)(13) exempts landscapers who install and maintain low-voltage exterior lighting, but not any required power source, so the outlet or circuit feeding the transformer still needs a licensed electrician. Florida's exemption in section 489.503(24) is narrower. It covers only low-voltage landscape lighting with a factory-installed cord and plug that needs no change to the building's wiring. We found no landscape lighting exemption in Colorado's electrician licensing law, title 12, article 115, so plan on a licensed electrician there. Whoever digs must call 811 first. Texas Utilities Code section 251.151 requires notice at least 48 hours ahead, not counting weekends and legal holidays. Florida section 556.105 requires two full business days, and Colorado section 9-1.5-103 requires two business days, not counting the day of notice. Utilities do not mark the association's own private lines, so pull your irrigation drawings and mark those yourself.

The bid, the vote and the reserve line

Ask every bidder to price the same map and fixture specification, with trenching, conduit, restoring turf and paving, the permit, the timer or photocells, and a spare fixture or two of the same model. Ask for the fixture warranty in years, the driver or battery warranty separately, and the expected life of each. Then vote at an open meeting. Texas Property Code section 209.0051(h)(14) says a board may vote on building capital improvements, other than repairing or replacing existing ones, only at an open meeting with notice to owners. New lights on a trail that had none are new construction. Florida section 720.303(2)(c) requires notice posted 48 hours before a board meeting, and 14 days' notice when the board will consider a special assessment. Colorado section 38-33.3-308(2)(a) opens all board meetings to members. Add the fixtures to the reserve study as a component, with the batteries or drivers as their own shorter-lived line. A motion to copy: 'Move to approve the bid of [contractor] for $[amount] to install [number] shielded path lights per the attached map and specification, funded from [source], and to add path lighting to the reserve study.'

A sample timeline and notice

Week one: two directors walk the trail after dark, number the problem spots and photograph them. Weeks two to four: write the specification, set up a sample fixture at the worst spot and invite nearby owners to look. Weeks four to eight: collect at least three bids from the same map and compare them line by line. Week eight or nine: vote at a noticed open meeting. Weeks nine to fourteen: the contractor pulls the permit, calls 811 and installs, usually a section at a time. Send this to owners a week before work starts: 'Starting [date], crews will install low path lights along the [name] trail between [point] and [point]. Expect small trenches along the path edge for about [number] days. The trail stays open, but please keep to the paved side near the work. Lights will turn off at [time] each night.' After the final inspection, file the as-built drawing showing where the cable runs, the warranties and the fixture model numbers.

Mistakes boards make

Buying the brightest fixture on the shelf and then fielding glare complaints for years. Letting each bidder pick a different fixture, so the bids cannot be compared. Choosing solar under a tree canopy and replacing dead units every winter. Skipping the as-built drawing, so the next irrigation repair cuts the lighting cable. Forgetting the timer, which leaves lights burning at 4 a.m. on a trail nobody uses. And ignoring the owners whose windows face the path until the lights are on, when one sample fixture and an evening walk would have settled it.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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