Battle Creek, MI Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Battle Creek confines freeway-oriented advertising to one section. Under Section 1263.10(a) of the Zoning Code, billboards are permitted in and limited to placement in Agriculture, B-1, I-1 and I-2 zoning districts when placed along a limited access highway or state trunk line, and a billboard cannot be erected on a premise that also contains a freestanding sign. A billboard is defined as a sign intended for visibility from high traffic volume roadways, designed and built to lease the sign face.

Subsection (b) sets the conditions. Billboards sit no closer than 1,500 feet from any other billboard on the same side of the right-of-way. They cannot exceed 672 square feet of area when located on or facing a limited access highway, and cannot exceed thirty-five feet in height. Each must be at least ten feet from any property line, twenty feet from any street right-of-way and 100 feet from any residential, public or quasi-public structure. The same subsection requires structures free of peeling paint, fading, staining or rust, and keeps lighting free of flashing, blinking or oscillating effects. Subsection (b)(2) points to the Highway Advertising Act, Public Act 106 of 1972, for the meaning of limited access highway and primary highway.

Subsection (c) stops new construction when there are seventy-five or more billboard faces in the City, and subsection (d) reserves the City's rights under the Highway Advertising Act, the Home Rule City Act and the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act to regulate the number and locations of billboards.

Businesses fronting the freeway have a smaller option. Section 1263.09(a) allows a property with frontage on a limited access highway (I-94/M66) one on-premises freestanding sign specifically oriented to highway traffic, at 150 square feet, with a stated setback band from the highway right-of-way line and 100 feet from any other freestanding sign.