Springfield, IL Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Off-premises advertising signs, billboards, are capped citywide under Sec. 340(i): the city will not issue more permits than existed on the date of enactment of this ordinance, and that number only decreases as signs are removed. Sec. 340(j) lets a permit holder trade in four surrendered permits for one replacement permit. Every replacement sign built under that four-for-one swap has to meet six minimum requirements listed in Sec. 340(i)(1) through (6), and the first is lighting: all lighting shall be designed in a way that the lighting does not spill over to adjoining properties or rights-of-way.

The remaining requirements round out the standard: the base has to be landscaped to the same standard as on-premises signs, poles must be skirted with decorative panels or bases, non-face structural parts have to be painted black or a color that blends with the surrounding structure's use, embellishments can't push the display past the 175-square-foot area cap set in Sec. 341, and each replacement location is limited to one sign face. This lighting-design rule sits inside the billboard-specific replacement program, separate from the general site-lighting standards in Sec.

480 that apply to parking lots and building exteriors; a billboard operator swapping permits under Sec. 340(j) has to design fixtures so their light stays on the sign structure and its immediate base rather than washing across the sidewalk, street or a neighboring lot.