Eugene, OR Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Eugene's digital billboard lighting standard sits inside the highway commercial sign standards, not the general outdoor lighting chapter, because billboards are treated as a sign-code issue first. EC 9.6675(7)(e) caps the internal illumination intensity of a digital billboard at 0.3 foot-candles over the ambient light level, with that reading taken from a distance of 150 feet, perpendicular to the sign face. That is the same 0.3 foot-candle ceiling the code applies to smaller institutional digital signs under EC 9.6640(10)(d), except the digital sign standard measures from 45 feet rather than 150.

To keep the billboard within that ceiling as daylight and weather conditions change, EC 9.6675(7)(f) requires the sign to be equipped with a light sensor that automatically adjusts the display's intensity according to ambient light. A billboard that runs at a fixed brightness regardless of whether it's noon or midnight does not meet this standard even if it happens to read under 0.3 foot-candles at some hours. The same brightness and sensor rules apply verbatim to digital billboards in employment and industrial zones under EC 9.6680(7)(e)-(f). The general sign illumination standards at EC 9.6640(6), including the rule that exterior sign lighting must be shielded and aimed downward, apply on top of these billboard-specific limits where they don't conflict.