Sunnyvale, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

040 as signs using digital display capable of remote changes of image, including LED and digital readerboards. 160(c)(1): EMCs may substitute for a wall or ground sign only in the ECR-C zoning district and in Block 18 of the Downtown Specific Plan; everywhere else in Sunnyvale, electronic message centers are prohibited outright. Places of assembly and theaters get a narrow exception, allowed a separate EMC sign in addition to their primary signage. 200 layers on detailed size, placement, and operating limits. An EMC wall sign cannot exceed one hundred square feet, and an EMC ground sign is capped at fifty square feet per side, with the sign height limited to ten feet measured from the top of the nearest curb; ground-mounted EMCs also displace any other ground sign at that location.

Every EMC must sit at least one hundred fifty feet from the nearest residential zoning district on the same street and cannot face a residential use on an abutting property. and only while the business is open, animated or scrolling transitions are prohibited, and every EMC must default to a black screen on malfunction. 3 footcandles over ambient lighting at distances tied to sign area, for example sixty-three feet for a forty-square-foot sign and one hundred feet for a one-hundred-square-foot sign.