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

Section 3.38.6.C of the Effingham County Zoning Ordinance sets the illumination standard for billboards countywide: all illuminated billboards must use base-mounted lights, the light source must not be visible from a vehicle or a residence, and no additional lighting beyond the base-mounted fixtures is allowed. This applies to every billboard, whether it is a traditional static panel or one using changeable-copy or video technology under § 3.38.6.J. For electronic and digital displays specifically, § 3.38.6.J.4 adds a further prohibition: no display or other effect from an electronically changed billboard may cause glare or any other condition that impairs a driver's vision or otherwise interferes with the safe operation of a motor vehicle.

Read together, the two provisions mean a billboard operator cannot simply comply with the base-mounted lighting rule and ignore glare from a video screen; the electronic display itself must also avoid impairing drivers along the highway frontage the billboard sits on. The lighting rule sits inside the county's broader sign ordinance, which also bars any light source on any sign, not just billboards, that is directly visible from a vehicle or residence, and bars any flashing or intermittent light on a sign under § 3.38.5.

Development Services reviews lighting compliance as part of the sign permit required for any commercial or industrial billboard under § 3.38.1, and a billboard that adds unauthorized lighting after permitting becomes an illegal sign subject to enforcement under § 3.38.3.