Sonoma, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

28 (Prohibitions), lists moving sign structures, pennants, whirligigs, reflectors, reflective signs, moving lights, flashing lights, feather signs, and visible gaseous discharges as specifically prohibited. Because a digital billboard or electronic message center operates by changing, scrolling, or flashing its display, it falls squarely within this prohibition on moving and flashing lights; the code carries no separate section authorizing electronic or LED billboards anywhere in Title 18. 020(A)(5) allows beacons or flashing lights strictly for community or special events, reviewed through the administrative review track before the planning director.

That exception does not extend to a permanent commercial digital display. 130(A), which governs illuminated signs and exterior business lighting generally and states that an illuminated sign shall not flash, blink, move, or scintillate, with illumination required to be as subdued as possible even where the DRHPC finds it essential. Read together, these sections mean a business or property owner in the City of Sonoma cannot install a digital billboard, an LED reader board, or any sign designed to flash or animate its message, regardless of zoning district, without running afoul of the prohibition; the only path available under the code is the narrow, event-limited administrative exception.