Tustin, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Tustin City Code Section 9404b(7) allows freeway adjacent digital display billboards only where a City Council-approved development agreement and Planning Commission conditional use permit replace, alter or modify an existing legally non-conforming off-premises sign or freeway-oriented electronic changeable copy sign erected on or before November 14, 2019. The billboard may only go on commercially zoned parcels within four hundred feet of the Interstate 5 or SR-55 right-of-way, and it cannot sit closer than three hundred feet to any residentially zoned parcel's property line, measured from the display face or structure base.

Height is capped at fifty-five feet above the freeway pavement to the bottom of the display, and each face is limited to twenty-five feet by sixty feet, with a maximum area of fifteen hundred square feet including border and trim. The display cycle rule requires each still image to hold for at least eight seconds with no more than one second of transition or blank screen, and prohibits motion, flashing, scintillating or traveling lights. The City Council must find the development agreement confers a substantial public benefit, such as removal of additional nonconforming billboards or financial contributions to the City, and must also find no traffic hazard, no nuisance to adjacent property and no undue increase in visual clutter before approval.