Ocala, FL Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Section 110-191(h) sets construction and operation criteria for digital off-site advertising signs, and paragraph (8) is the lighting standard: a digital billboard may not operate at brightness levels of more than 0.3 foot-candles above ambient light, measured with a foot candle meter at a pre-set distance that scales with the sign's face size, 150 feet for faces up to 300 square feet and 200 feet for larger faces. The section requires automatic sensors be built into the sign so its illumination adjusts as ambient light conditions change through the day and night, rather than running at a fixed brightness.

The city can demand the sign owner produce evidence of compliance, and that evidence must come from independent third-party testing using a foot candle meter or similar device, not the owner's own self-certification. This lighting standard sits alongside the sign's other digital-specific rules in the same subsection, including a ban on flashing lights or traveling messages and a default fail-safe design that freezes the display in one position if the sign malfunctions, all aimed at keeping an illuminated billboard from becoming a driver distraction or nuisance to nearby residential land, which separately must sit at least 200 feet from any digital sign under section 110-187.