Bartow County, GA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Sec. 4 of the Bartow County Zoning Ordinance sets the lighting standards that apply to every illuminated sign in the unincorporated county, including the large freestanding ground signs and entrance signs that function as billboard-style advertising. Internal illumination of a ground sign is barred outright in any residential or agricultural zoning district; those signs may only be lit externally. Wherever external lighting is used, subsection (A) requires it to be positioned and shielded so that the light source cannot be seen directly by any passing motorists nor from adjacent dwellings or businesses, a direct light-trespass control aimed at keeping billboard-style glare off the road and off neighboring homes.

Subsection (C) goes further, requiring externally illuminated signs to use low-wattage luminaries mounted in fixtures designed to direct the light and eliminate light trespass, such as light shining into residences or other neighboring structures, while subsection (D) requires internally illuminated signs to use low-wattage luminaries designed to reduce light glow. Height triggers an added rule: under subsection (E), any sign over 10 feet tall, the size range where a true billboard-scale structure falls, must be lit either internally or by external fixtures mounted above the sign face and firing downward, and that downward light cannot be visible to passing motorists.

For the small class of signs allowed to carry electronic displays under subsection (F), the county layers on numeric brightness limits in subsection (G): message changes no more than once every 10 seconds, automatic dimming tied to ambient light, and a hard cap of 7,500 nits in daylight and 250 nits at night, measured with a foot-candle meter at a fixed distance from the display. The Zoning Administrator enforces these lighting standards alongside the rest of Article XI.