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

Gordon County, Georgia regulates billboards, which the code calls off-premises outdoor advertising signs, in Chapter 13 of the Gordon County Code. Section 13-10 says these signs require a permit and are allowed in developed commercial and industrial zoning districts only. Subsection (f) is the lighting rule: illumination shall not be direct, every illuminated sign shall use base mounted fluorescent or mercury vapor lights, and those lights shall be activated by photoelectric cells. Neon, animation, and running or flashing lights are prohibited outright.

The lighting rule sits beside placement limits in the same section. A billboard is capped at 672 square feet of sign area and, outside an Interstate quadrant, 25 feet in height. It must sit at least 100 feet from the right-of-way of a public street or highway and 25 feet from all property lines and buildings on the site. Section 13-10(d) keeps a billboard at least 500 feet from the residential zoning districts R-1, R-2, R-2A, R-3 and O-I, and subsection (e) requires 1,500 feet between billboards on the same side of the primary highway outside a quadrant.

Signs beside Interstate 75 face a second layer. Article II of Chapter 13 applies to outdoor advertising signs abutting or visible from the Interstate 75 right-of-way. Section 13-33 requires illumination devices to be placed and shielded so that light from the sign is not directly cast into any residential district, sleeping rooms in any district, or the eyes of an automobile or vehicular driver. Section 13-27(1) bars any sign from displaying lights resembling the flashing lights used in traffic signals or in police, fire, ambulance or rescue vehicles. Section 13-26(d) requires conformity with the Georgia outdoor advertising code, O.C.G.A. § 32-6-70 et seq., and says the county's rules apply wherever they are stricter.

Electrical work is checked separately. Section 13-5(h) makes all electrical signs and the devices that illuminate them subject to approval by the Gordon County Building Inspector or his designee, and they must be listed by an approved testing laboratory or agency. Under § 13-5(f), no sign or illumination can be placed where it would interfere with the view of an authorized traffic control device or emergency vehicle device.