Chandler, AZ Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

City Code Section 39-8(A) lists eleven categories of prohibited signs, and item 11 is simply "Billboards", no exception, no district carve-out, and no separate lighting standard because the structure can never be permitted in the first place. The Zoning Administrator enforces the sign chapter under Section 39-6, using a progressive approach: a notice to comply, then civil citations, then criminal prosecution if noncompliance continues. A pre-existing billboard erected before the current code and now nonconforming under Section 39-5 may continue in use and receive reasonable repair, but any alteration or restoration exceeding fifty percent of its value, as determined by a licensed sign contractor, forces the owner to bring it into full conformance, which means removal, since new billboards cannot be permitted.

A nonconforming billboard that is damaged, vandalized, or abandoned for more than ninety days must be removed or replaced with a conforming sign at the owner's expense. Because Section 39-8 also separately bans exposed neon or incandescent outline lighting and flashing, blinking, or rotating illumination on any sign, an operator cannot work around the billboard ban by labeling a large internally lit advertising panel as some other permitted sign type; the Zoning Administrator reviews the underlying use. Chandler's prohibition sits inside Chapter 39 of the City Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 4729 on May 25, 2017, which comprehensively rewrote the sign regulations.