St. Johns County, FL Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Article VII's Part 7.01.00 governs Billboard Signs countywide (billboards top out at 35 feet, or 40 feet along Interstate 95, and 378 square feet of facing, or 560 square feet on I-95). Within Sec. 7.01.03 General Requirements, the Movement subsection flatly bans Flashing, Scintillating, Beacon, or Running Lights, or Animated Copy on any billboard, no exceptions by size or road frontage. The Lighting subsection then says a billboard may be lighted only in accordance with Section 7.00.06.C, the article's general Sign Illumination rule. That standard requires white light between 2500K and 4000K color temperature (except automatic changeable message devices, which billboards may not use per the Movement ban above); requires larger or taller signs to be top-lighted with the point source aimed downward; requires shielding so no beam reaches the traveled right-of-way, including Interstate and federal-aid highways, or any residential-zoned property, with the light source itself not visible from residential land; and caps illumination at 0.3 footcandles over ambient light, measured with a footcandle meter 150 feet from the source starting 30 minutes after sunset.

A billboard whose lighting exceeds these limits, or whose intensity glares or impairs a driver's vision, does not get grandfathered: Growth Management can require it be brought into conformance, and a non-compliant Billboard Sign Structure is declared Non-Conforming under the same Part.