Paramount, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Paramount Municipal Code § 17.36.030 is the sign section of Chapter 17.36, the M-2 Heavy Manufacturing Zone, and subsection K carves out freeway-oriented digital billboards. The code defines a digital billboard in § 17.04.010 as a billboard utilizing digital message technology, capable of changing the static message or copy on the sign electronically or wirelessly by computer programming, and the definition covers electronic and LED billboards.

Location is tightly limited. Subsection K(1) permits these billboards, in compliance with Federal and State law, only along the Long Beach (I-710) Freeway between Rosecrans Avenue and the Century (I-105) Freeway, and along the south boundary of the Century (I-105) Freeway between the centerline of Orange Avenue and approximately 200 feet due east. A site outside those two freeway segments has no path to approval under this subsection.

There is no over-the-counter standard for brightness, message timing, height or sign area in subsection K. Instead, K(2) requires that all use standards and mitigations, including those that ensure digital billboard lighting will not negatively impact the surrounding neighborhoods, be identified in a development agreement. The Planning Commission and the Paramount City Council both approve that agreement. The design of the billboard is then reviewed separately by the Development Review Board under Chapter 17.60.

The billboard category also gets special treatment elsewhere in § 17.36.030. The sign copy rule in subsection B limits ordinary signs to the established trade name or basic product name and bars telephone numbers, websites and product lists, but states that it does not apply to freeway-oriented digital billboards. Subsection C lists freeway-oriented digital billboards among the permitted sign types. In the prohibited list in subsection D, off-premises signs are banned with the exception of freeway-oriented digital billboards, so these billboards can carry advertising for something not located on the site. Mobile billboards remain prohibited.

Subsection A applies to every sign in the section: a sign drawing must be submitted to the Planning Director for approval before installation, showing dimensions, colors, type, style, materials, elevation above final grade and the method of illumination, with the sign superimposed on a photograph of the proposed location. The City ordinance adding the current billboard subsection is Ord. 1198, dated 4/22/2025.