Vallejo, CA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

07(L), Off-Site Signs - Billboards, folds a full lighting-behavior code into the city's billboard rules. Paragraph 7(k) sets the core luminance number: a digital billboard display's luminance between sunset and sunrise, and during daytime inclement weather such as fog or heavy overcast, cannot exceed one hundred sixty Nits (cd/m2). The same paragraph requires every qualifying sign to carry a sensor, dimmer control, and photo cell that constantly monitors ambient light conditions and adjusts sign brightness to the established luminance levels, and if that sensor cannot detect daytime fog and adjust automatically, the luminance must drop to 160 Nits or the sign must turn off until the weather clears.

Paragraphs 7(l) through (q) back the number with a testing protocol: luminance measurements have to be taken by a photometric engineer or lighting expert directly in front of the sign, both during the day and at night, using a luminance meter aperture of one degree or less and a fifty-foot viewing distance, with the display showing a blank white screen during the test. Beyond raw brightness, paragraphs 7(d) through (g) bar any digital billboard from displaying intensity or color that changes or appears to change, require lighting to be adjusted after sunset to avoid distracting drivers or residents, and bar message transitions that dissolve, fade, or overlap rather than switching instantly.

A digital billboard can only be built at all through a major use permit that removes at least four existing off-site sign structures elsewhere in the city, and no more than three digital billboards are allowed along Interstate 80, with none permitted along Interstate 780, Highway 29, or the north side of Highway 37.