Camarillo, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 17.04.130 of the sign chapter lists fourteen sign types 'prohibited in all zones,' and two of them, subsections H and I, ban off-site signs and outdoor advertising structures without exception anywhere in the city. Section 17.04.020 defines an outdoor advertising structure as 'a sign erected for the purpose of advertising a product, event, person or subject not related to the premises on which the sign is located (i.e., a billboard),' and an off-site sign as any commercial sign advertising something that originates on a different site than where the sign stands. Together those two definitions capture the classic billboard, whether static or digital.

Even a sign that stayed strictly on-site could not run as a digital billboard in Camarillo: subsection C separately bans flashing signs, and subsection G bans signs that rotate, move, or otherwise show or simulate motion, which covers scrolling or video-style electronic message boards. The only electronic display the code affirmatively allows is a static changeable-copy panel for uses like public facilities, theaters, or assembly halls, and even those are capped in size, limited to specific building types, and barred from changing more than once every four hours. Section 17.04.140 lets the director remove an unsafe or illegal sign, including an illegally erected billboard, without prior notice, and the property owner bears the removal and storage costs before an unclaimed sign is disposed of after thirty days. Any sign permit decision, including a denial based on this prohibition, can be appealed first to the planning commission and then to the city council under Section 17.04.150.