Los Banos, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Max display area
- 300 sq ft
- Max structure height
- 25 ft from grade
- Spacing between displays
- 500 ft, same roadway side
- Setback from property line/building
- 100 ft
- Animation/moving parts
- prohibited
- Required approval
- Planning Commission use permit
Summary
Los Banos requires a Planning Commission use permit for any off-site billboard, and Municipal Code § 9-3.2819(i) bars moving parts or animation on the sign face. That flatly rules out digital, LED and changeable-message billboard displays; a permitted billboard must show static copy only, on a single-pole structure no taller than twenty-five feet.
Standards for billboard signs (nonappurtenant). ... (4) Prohibitions. (A) V-type, side-by-side, and back-to-back displays shall be prohibited. Advertising shall be permitted on both faces of a permitted display. (B) Banners, balloons, flags, pennants, pinwheels, and similar attention getting devices shall be prohibited. ... (D) No moving parts or animation shall be permitted. ... (8) Use Permits. All billboard signs shall require a use permit for erection or modification. (9) Mitigation Measures. All nonappurtenant signs shall be erected and maintained in accordance with the provisions of this article and any conditions attached to the issuance of the use permit. Failure to abide by such provisions will result in the revocation of the use permit and the removal of the sign.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: rev 4356507; v3 updated 2025-03-05).
Full Breakdown
Billboards are called 'nonappurtenant signs' in Article 29 of the zoning code and are treated separately from on-premise business signs. 2819(i) caps display area at 300 square feet and sign height at twelve feet, with a total structure height of twenty-five feet above grade and a minimum twelve-foot clearance from grade to the bottom of the sign. Displays must sit at least five hundred feet apart on the same side of a roadway, at least one hundred feet from any property line or building, and at least five hundred feet from any four-corner intersection.
Only a single-pole support structure is allowed; V-type, side-by-side and back-to-back configurations are prohibited, though advertising is permitted on both faces of one permitted display. Banners, balloons, flags, pennants and pinwheels attached to a billboard are prohibited outright, and subsection (D) adds the rule that matters most for digital displays: no moving parts or animation shall be permitted on a billboard sign, full stop. That is a different standard from the animated 'changeable copy' signs the code allows on-premise in districts such as C-N and M-X, which can flash a new message every eight seconds; nothing like that is available to an off-site billboard.
Every billboard needs a Planning Commission use permit before it is erected or modified, and the owner's identity must be posted on the structure. Signs must be built to the Uniform Sign Code and kept neatly painted.
Violations & Fines
A billboard erected or altered without a use permit, or one that adds animation, moving parts or a prohibited configuration, is out of compliance with § 9-3.2819(i). The article's own mitigation clause is direct: failure to abide by the permit conditions or the article's standards results in revocation of the use permit and removal of the sign, at the owner's expense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a billboard in Los Banos have a digital or LED display?
Do on-premise business signs get the same animation ban?
What permit does a billboard need in Los Banos?
What happens if a billboard violates the animation ban?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Los Banos
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