Battle Creek, MI Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Billboards in the City of Battle Creek (Calhoun County, Michigan) are governed by Section 1263.10 of the Planning and Zoning Code, and the lighting rule sits in subsection (b)(6). Three separate demands apply to an illuminated billboard. First, the sign cannot be lit other than by approved electrical devices installed in accordance with Chapter 1422, the city's Electrical Code. Second, underground wiring is required for any illuminated sign permitted under the section, so overhead feeds are not an option. Third, the sign cannot employ flashing, blinking or oscillating lights, and any lighting has to be directed away from adjacent properties, passing motorists and pedestrians.

The lighting standard is one of several conditions in subsection (b). A billboard is permitted only in the Agriculture, B-1, I-1 and I-2 zoning districts, along a limited access highway or state trunk line, and cannot share a premise with a freestanding sign. Billboards must sit no closer than 1,500 feet from another billboard on the same side of the right-of-way, cannot exceed 672 square feet of area when on or facing a limited access highway, and cannot exceed thirty-five feet in height. Required distances are ten feet from any property line, twenty feet from any street right-of-way and 100 feet from any residential, public or quasi-public structure. Subsection (c) bars any new billboard while seventy-five or more billboard faces stand in the City.

Section 1263.11, the general sign illumination rule, separately caps internally lit signs at 100 watts or 1,600 lumens, measured one foot from the sign face at its midpoint, and requires external light sources to be so obscure and shielded that no direct rays are visible from a public right-of-way or an abutting property. Section 1263.12 requires sign structures to stay free of damage and calls any structure left open with no sign or blank panel for over ninety days abandoned. A nonconforming billboard can be maintained and repaired but never expanded, enlarged or extended.