Lee County, NC Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Article 11, Section 11.9 of the Lee County Unified Development Ordinance splits billboard regulation by jurisdiction: Section 11.9.1 bans outdoor advertising signs outright inside the City of Sanford and the Town of Broadway, while Section 11.9.2 sets the standards that apply in unincorporated Lee County. Off-premises outdoor advertising signs may be erected only in the HC (highway commercial), LI (light industrial) and HI (heavy industrial) zoning districts. Each billboard must sit at least 100 feet from any residential zoning district and at least 100 feet from the business or use it advertises, and no two billboards may stand within 1,000 linear feet of each other. Section 11.9.2.5 caps the sign face at 300 square feet, and Section 11.9.2.6 limits each structure to a single sign face.

Lighting is governed separately by Table 11-4, "Standards for Sign Characteristics," which lists what illumination each zoning district allows. For the C-1, O&I, LI and HI column, and for the NC, C-2 and HC column, the table marks "Illumination, Internal" and "Illumination, Indirect" with a "P" for permitted, but marks "Illumination, Indirect, Exposed Bulbs or neon" with a dash, meaning bare-bulb or neon lighting is prohibited outright on billboards in every district where they are otherwise allowed. Because billboards are confined to HC, LI and HI districts, this table effectively allows internally lit or indirectly lit billboard faces countywide but bans exposed-bulb and neon treatments everywhere a billboard may legally stand. The Sanford/Lee County Community Development Department administers sign permits under Article 11 and enforces the UDO under Section 1.6.