Rockdale County, GA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Rockdale County Code § 230-21, the billboard section of the county's sign chapter, allows billboards on lots abutting the interstate in nonresidential zoning districts, capped at 672 square feet per face (two faces maximum), 48 feet in height and 48 feet in length. Subsection (h) addresses light directly: billboards may be illuminated indirectly from a light source pointing downward, meaning floodlights mounted at the base and aimed up at the sign face, or an internally lit face, are not an allowed method. That rule sits alongside the chapter's general illumination standard in § 230-12, which applies to every sign in the unincorporated county, billboards included.

Under § 230-12(a), no sign may give off light that glares, blinds, or otherwise adversely affects traffic or adjacent properties, and no direct light may be cast onto an adjacent property or roadway. 3 footcandles over ambient light, measured at a height of five feet, viewed head-on from the nearest adjacent property line or 100 feet, whichever point is closer to the sign. If the Department of Planning and Development determines a lit billboard is causing glare, impairing a driver's vision, or otherwise threatening road safety, the owner has only 24 hours after notice from the director to bring the fixture's intensity back into compliance.

Because the Board of Adjustment's variance authority under § 230-22(d) excludes non-dimensional requirements such as illumination, a billboard operator cannot obtain a variance to run brighter or use direct fixtures; the illumination standard is fixed.