Oxnard, CA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

The only outdoor lighting standard the Oxnard Code writes specifically for billboards sits inside the freeway adjacent digital display billboard ordinance, Sec. 16-609(B)(7), because that is the only type of billboard the city allows. It sets a hard brightness ceiling: no digital billboard display may exceed 0.3 foot-candles over the ambient light level measured at a distance of 250 feet in any direction from the sign. The code specifies how that reading has to be taken, too: with a foot-candle meter held at approximately five feet off the ground and aimed at the sign consistent with the actual sign-to-viewer distance, not from directly underneath or at an artificial angle.

Because these billboards also have to comply with every other applicable law on the subject, Sec. 16-609(B)(7) folds in state brightness standards by cross-reference: California Business and Professions Code Section 5403(g), part of the Outdoor Advertising Act, and California Vehicle Code Section 21466.5, both of which govern illumination of off-site advertising displays near state highways. The brightness limit is not a stand-alone rule the operator self-certifies; it is a condition of the special use permit and statutory development agreement required by Sec. 16-609(A), which must expressly address light intensity as one of its negotiated terms before the city council will approve it. That gives code enforcement two enforcement paths at once: the fixed 0.3 foot-candle ceiling in the ordinance itself, and whatever tighter light-intensity terms the individual development agreement for that billboard adds.