Rutherford County, TN Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

i regulates billboards, defined as off-premise signs, as their own category, separate from the on-premise ground signs businesses use to advertise themselves. Billboards are allowed only along the frontage of I-24, one sign face per direction, up to 775 square feet and 35 feet in height. Subsection v sets the lighting standard directly: illumination is external lighting only, meaning a billboard along I-24 can be lit by fixtures aimed at the sign face from outside, but it cannot be internally illuminated, backlit, or built as a lightbox.

g, which permits internal lighting only. Billboards also carry their own setback package: at least 15 feet and no more than 200 feet from the interstate right-of-way, at least 10 feet from a side or rear property line, and they cannot sit within 200 feet of any residential zoning district boundary. Spacing rules layered on top require at least 1,000 feet from an interchange or at-grade intersection and at least 1,000 feet from the closest billboard on the same side of the road. Because Section 1204 O also bars sign display areas with varying light illumination or intensity, an externally lit billboard cannot use flashing or intensity-varying floodlights either, only steady external fixtures.