Bayonne, NJ Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Bayonne City Code § 35-5.9(f)(2)(h) sets a distinct lighting standard for the billboards permitted within the Limited Commercial Overlay Zone District that the City created along the New Jersey Turnpike: lighting for a qualifying billboard must be designed to restrict glare and spillover to the adjoining areas. The requirement sits inside the same list of criteria that caps billboard height at 50 feet, sets a 200-foot buffer from residential zones, and limits advertising area to 672 square feet per face, so lighting design is reviewed alongside those dimensional limits when the Zoning Officer processes a billboard application.

Section 35-5.9(f)(2)(i) layers on state law, requiring every applicant to comply with the Roadside Sign Control and Outdoor Advertising Act, N.J.S.A. 27:5-5 et seq., and its implementing regulations at N.J.A.C. 16:41C-1.1 et seq., which carry their own illumination standards for signs facing state highways. Outside the Overlay District, Bayonne's general sign code separately bans any illuminated sign anywhere in the city that has interior or exterior flashing light sources, intermittent or variable-intensity lighting, or that causes glare on pedestrian or vehicular circulation patterns within or into residential areas, under § 35-25.2c(2).

A Turnpike billboard's lighting therefore has to clear both the citywide flashing-light ban and the Overlay District's specific glare-and-spillover standard before the Zoning Officer will sign off on the application.