Fullerton, CA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

120(G), the operational requirements for a freeway-oriented electronic billboard, ties the sign's brightness directly to state law: subsection (4) requires the billboard to "contain a light sensing device that will adjust the brightness as ambient light conditions change in accordance with the Outdoor Advertising Act, Cal. " The same subsection bars the visual effects that make electronic billboards a nuisance to drivers: paragraph (3) limits the sign to "static messages only," prohibiting any movement, or the appearance of movement, of the sign structure, design or pictorial content during a static display, and it bars flashing lighting or the varying of light intensity within a message.

Paragraph (7) goes further and bars "any red or blinking or intermittent light likely to be mistaken for warning or danger signals," and separately prohibits illumination that would impair the vision of drivers on the adjacent freeway. " If the sign malfunctions, paragraph (5) requires it to fail safe: the display must freeze on one static image, switch to a full black screen, or shut off entirely rather than continue showing distracting or errant light. Because the standard is tied to the Outdoor Advertising Act rather than a fixed lumen number, the light-sensing requirement scales the sign's brightness to daylight and nighttime conditions rather than fixing a single brightness cap.