San Antonio, TX Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Section 28-43 applies to every digital display in the city, on-premise and off-premise alike, including billboards, on top of any additional standard listed elsewhere in the sign chapter. A display cannot glow bright enough to cause glare or impair a driver's vision, cannot mimic a warning or danger signal, and cannot resemble the lights used to control traffic under the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Every digital display must run a dimmer control and a photocell that automatically dials brightness up or down with ambient light, and the factory pre-set intensity cannot exceed 7,000 NITS, protected from end-user manipulation.

3 footcandles over ambient light at the location, measured at a distance keyed to the sign's size: 100 feet for signs up to 100 square feet, 150 feet for 101 to 350 square feet, 200 feet for 351 to 650 square feet, and 250 feet for anything larger. Readings are taken with a calibrated luminance meter between evening and morning civil twilight, with at least five measurements recorded, dated, and logged against the sign's permit number in the city's permitting system. If a sign malfunctions, it must freeze in place, and a display that keeps endangering traffic can be ordered shut off entirely.

Displays already up before July 3, 2017 had one year to come into compliance, though single-color, text-only incandescent or monochrome LED signs are excluded from the brightness rules. The Unified Development Code layers on additional light-intensity restrictions under Sec. 35-612.