Orem, UT Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Orem City Code Section 14-3-3 treats Electronic Message Center (EMC) signs, the digital displays that can be affixed to a legal billboard, monument sign, pole sign or wall sign, as a distinct sign type requiring its own City-issued sign permit before installation. 3 lumens above the surrounding ambient light level, measured at the sign face, so the display must dim as the night gets darker rather than running at a fixed output. EMCs may change images or scroll (the code calls this "motion"), but true flashing, an abrupt on/off or blinking effect, is prohibited outright for every EMC sign in the City.

A separate carve-out targets the freeway corridor: under Section 22-14-29, no EMC display of any kind may be installed on a billboard sitting on the east side of Interstate 15 within 500 feet of the highway, regardless of what the general EMC rule would otherwise allow, because that section controls over 14-3-3 wherever the two conflict. The underlying billboard itself remains governed separately: new billboards are barred citywide as of the current code, so an EMC-equipped billboard can only be a lawfully existing nonconforming structure along State Street, I-15 or 800 North that has not lost its nonconforming status. Development Services reviews EMC permit applications alongside the sign permit for the host structure, checking the brightness spec against manufacturer photometric data before issuance.