Aliso Viejo, CA Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

In the City of Aliso Viejo, Orange County, California, item 11 of § 15.34.170(A) of the Aliso Viejo Municipal Code lists signs oriented toward a freeway as prohibited in the city unless approved pursuant to AVMC 15.34.120. The prohibition is the default, and the approval route runs through Table 15.34.120, the permanent signs table for nonresidential districts and the nonresidential portions of specific plan and mixed-use developments. The table does not mention freeways by name, so an applicant is pointed to its listed sign types and to the sign permit process in § 15.34.070.

The neighboring prohibitions in § 15.34.170(A) narrow what a freeway-facing sign can be. Roof signs (item 8) and pole signs (item 10) are banned, projecting signs are banned unless approved as part of a master sign program (item 9), billboards or outdoor advertising signs are banned (item 2), and any off-premises sign or sign advertising a business not on the property is banned (item 1). Flashing, animated or pulsating signs, laser lighting and searchlights (item 4) are also prohibited, as are rotating signs (item 7).

What Table 15.34.120 does allow is on-site and modest. A freestanding monument identification sign gets 1 double-faced sign or 2 single-faced signs per street frontage, 40 sq./ft. per sign unless a master sign program says otherwise, and 6 ft. including base. The project needs at least 100 feet of frontage where the sign is placed, and each sign must show the street address in characters 5 to 7 in. high. Building identification wall signs are limited to 2 signs per building, at 1 sq./ft. per lineal foot of wall frontage up to a maximum of 100 sq./ft. per building side, placed at the top of the building wall.

The sign permit is filed with the planning department and reviewed ministerially by the planning director under § 15.34.070. The director can refer an application to the city council within 10 days after it is complete. Actions by the director are appealed under § 15.70.080, and the planning director enforces the chapter under § 15.34.020.