Orange, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

180 first prohibits new billboards outright, then carves out a conversion pathway for existing structures. Subsection D defines an electronic billboard as an internally or externally illuminated sign using digital message technology capable of instantaneously changing its copy, and confines conversions to the freeway corridor, the land within 300 feet of the right-of-way of Interstate 5, State Route 22, State Route 55, and State Route 57. Conversion requires a Minor Site Plan Review approval, a relocation agreement with the City under Business and Professions Code Section 5412, and CEQA environmental review; each sign face must be oriented toward the freeway corridor and away from residential zoning, and no electronic billboard may sit on or within 300 feet of single-family residential property.

Spacing rules keep displays from clustering: 500 feet from any other billboard on the same side of the freeway and 1,000 feet from any other electronic billboard or on-premises electronic sign. Height tops out at 60 feet from finished grade unless an existing billboard being converted is already taller, and each sign face, including framing and trim, cannot exceed 680 square feet. Message content is locked to still images: no motion, flashing, blinking, traveling lights, or intensity variation is allowed, each static message must hold for at least eight consecutive seconds, and the blank transition between messages cannot exceed one second.

The relocation agreement itself, approved solely at the City Council's discretion, must require removal of at least five existing billboard faces citywide for each two-face electronic billboard approved, 14 days' mailed notice to residential owners within 500 feet before Council considers the deal, and donation of up to 10% of advertising time to City-requested community events.