Pima County, AZ Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Section 18.79.080(A) allows a billboard in the CB-2, CI-1, CI-2 and CI-3 zones, but only subject to a General list of conditions that opens with clearance and face-count limits before landing on subsection (c): 'No illumination.' That's a flat prohibition, not a cap on brightness or hours: it applies regardless of zone, size, or how the billboard is otherwise configured, and it sits alongside a two-face maximum, no cap on the number of billboards on a property, and a rule that no on-site business identification sign can be attached to a billboard face.

The chapter closes off any workaround through its incentive program too. Section 18.79.100(A) creates a Dark Sky Protection Option that lets a qualifying sign add 25 percent more area and height in exchange for meeting shielding, color-temperature and curfew rules, useful for a wall or freestanding sign owner who wants a bigger illuminated sign. But subsection (A)(2) states the option 'applies to conventional internally-illuminated signs and externally-illuminated signs' and 'does not apply to billboard signs,' closing the door on any lit billboard, dimmed, shielded, or otherwise.

The no-illumination rule follows a billboard even through reconstruction. Section 18.79.060(G) allows a billboard with a wooden support structure to be swapped for a metal one of the same sign area, but only if 'Illumination: None' remains true for the rebuilt structure, a second wooden-structure billboard nearby comes down within 30 days, and the new structure tops out at 24 feet. In short, there is no permit, zone, or program in unincorporated Pima County's sign chapter that authorizes a lit billboard.