Sauk County, WI Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Sec. 7.128 sets the illumination standard that Sec. 7.130 incorporates by reference for every off-premises sign the county allows, including billboards along U.S. and state highways and county roads. Sec. 7.128(1) caps any externally lit sign at four lights, each directed only at the copy area from a downward angle mounted at the top of the sign structure, which rules out ground-mounted floodlights aimed upward at a billboard face. Sec. 7.128(2) prohibits illumination that is not effectively shielded from the road and that is intense enough to glare or impair a driver's vision or otherwise interfere with safe operation of a vehicle, a standard that applies with particular force to a billboard sited close to a highway right-of-way.

Sec. 7.128(3) sets a brightness ceiling for any electronic message copy area, though Sec. 7.127(1) already confines electronic components to on-premises ground signs, so an off-premises billboard cannot use the electronic option at all and must instead rely on external or internal non-electronic lighting within the four-light, no-glare standard. Sec. 7.128(4) confines illuminated signs, on-premises or off, to the commercial, recreational commercial and industrial zoning districts, so a billboard in an agricultural or residential district cannot be lit regardless of the fixture. Sec. 7.128(5) additionally bars any illumination that interferes with an official traffic sign, device or signal, and Sec. 7.128(6) bans flashing, moving, reflecting or otherwise changing light sources on any sign face.