Albemarle County, VA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

8 of the Zoning Ordinance lists prohibited sign types and characteristics that apply in every zoning district, from the Rural Areas to the Highway Commercial district. Subsection (c)(4) puts billboards on that list alongside animated signs, banners outside the temporary-sign exception, flashing signs, moving signs and roof signs. 1 defines a billboard as any freestanding off-site sign exceeding 32 square feet in sign area, so the ban reaches large advertising structures regardless of how they are lit. Because the sign type itself cannot be erected, the county never had to write a lighting standard specific to billboards; instead, general sign-illumination limits in subsection (b) cover any lighting fixture attached to a lawful sign.

Those limits bar a sign that casts illumination, directly or indirectly, on any street or on adjacent property within a residential district, cap exposed rare-gas illumination at 30 milliamps of brightness, and prohibit strings of light bulbs, searchlights, beacons, strobe lights and any illumination arrangement a fire official, building official or law enforcement officer determines creates a safety hazard. A property owner who wants to advertise off-site must instead use a permitted alternative, such as a directional sign or an off-site bundle sign obtained through a special use permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals under Sec.

7, both of which remain subject to the same illumination restrictions in subsection (b). The zoning administrator in the Department of Community Development enforces the sign regulations countywide outside Charlottesville and the incorporated Town of Scottsville.