Elyria, OH Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Billboards in the City of Elyria are regulated as off-premises signs in Chapter 1173 of the Planning and Zoning Code, which the chapter itself calls the outdoor advertising ordinance of the City of Elyria. Section 1173.10 is the lighting section, and it opens by allowing off-premises signs to be illuminated subject to four restrictions.

Paragraph A prohibits any sign that contains, includes or is illuminated by a flashing, intermittent or moving light or lights. Paragraph C requires effective shielding to keep beams or rays from being directed toward any portion of the traveled ways, and it bars intensity or brilliance that causes glare or impairs the vision of the driver of any motor vehicle or otherwise interferes with any driver operating a vehicle. Paragraph D bars illumination that interferes with the effectiveness of, or obscures, an official traffic sign, device or signal. Paragraph B, on electronic variable message signs, is covered separately. Section 1173.10 prints no footcandle or brightness number; the test is the wording about glare and driver vision.

Lighting is one layer of the chapter. Off-premises signs are permitted only in the B-D, B-G, B-AO, L-I, H-I and S-I districts (§ 1173.03). The minimum distance between an off-premises sign and a residential district is one hundred feet (§ 1173.08(E)), and signs must be constructed so that messages do not face residential districts (§ 1173.05(F)). Maximum height is fifty feet above grade level of the roadway (§ 1173.07), and no off-premises sign can be established within 2,640 feet of another (§ 1173.08(A)). Setbacks are ten feet from the front lot line and five feet from the side and rear lot lines (§ 1173.09). Permits and fees run through Chapter 109 (§ 1173.11), and § 1173.12 gives the Building Inspector the right to order the repair or removal of any sign that is defective, damaged or substantially deteriorated.