Beaumont, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 8.50.070.7 of the Beaumont Municipal Code, added when Ordinance 1166 rewrote Chapter 8.50 on November 7, 2023, sets nine operating criteria for electronic billboards. The heading prints as "Electronic Billboard Lightning Requirements," and the provision sits within the Commercial/Industrial Zone lighting rules.

Content and timing: each static message cannot include flashing lights or the varying of light intensity, and each message has to be displayed for a minimum of four seconds.

Brightness: an electronic billboard cannot operate at more than 0.3 foot-candles above ambient light, measured with a foot-candle meter at a pre-set distance that depends on the sign. A 12 by 25 foot face is measured at 150 feet, a 10 foot 6 inch by 36 foot face at 200 feet, and a 14 by 48 foot face at 250 feet. Each billboard needs a light sensing device that adjusts brightness as ambient light changes.

Malfunctions: each billboard has to be designed and required to freeze the display in one static position, display a full black screen, or turn off if it fails.

Traffic safety: a billboard cannot be operated in a way that endangers safe and efficient operation of vehicles on streets or freeways, and it has to comply with all applicable local, state and federal laws. No electronic billboard can involve any red or blinking or intermittent light that could be mistaken for warning or danger signals, and its illumination cannot impair the vision of travelers on the adjacent freeway and roadways. That last point matters in a city built along Interstate 10.

State law: each billboard has to be operated and maintained in compliance with Business and Professions Code Section 5403.

Section 8.50.040 adds a separate ban on billboard lighting that is pointed up, unless a special event permit or Conditional Use Permit applies.