Mebane, NC Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Billboards in Mebane are governed as their own sign type under UDO Section 6-7.7(I), permitted only in the LM and HM industrial districts and only if located within 400 feet of an interstate highway's on- or off-ramps, one sign per qualifying site, capped at 400 square feet of display area, with top-outs and side-outs adding up to 32 more square feet, and a double-faced back-to-back sign counted as one sign. The illumination standard in Section 6-7.7(I)(3) is more restrictive than the general sign-lighting rule: a billboard may be illuminated, but the light has to be placed and shielded so direct rays are not cast on nearby properties or on motor vehicles approaching from any direction, and an externally illuminated billboard must be lighted from the top of the sign downward to cut light pollution, the same top-down rule that applies to other externally lit signs under Section 6-7.5(D)(3).

The ordinance then adds a billboard-specific ban that goes further than the citywide prohibition on animated signs: no rotating, revolving, flashing, or intermittent lighting device may be attached to or made a part of any billboard at all, not even the narrow two-second changeable-copy exception that ground and pole signs get under Section 6-7.3(H). A billboard still needs a sign permit from the Zoning Administrator under Section 6-7.2 before it is illuminated or erected, and any electrical work triggers the standard electrical permit and National Electrical Code compliance required of every illuminated sign under Section 6-7.5(B).