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

840) and layers special sign controls on the 660-foot band along its right-of-way. 850, no new or additional off-site sign or billboard may be erected, and no existing off-site sign or billboard may be altered or relocated, within that 660 feet if its copy is or would be visible to freeway travelers, a rule in force since April 4, 1970. 860, which applies when a sign's copy is visible from within 660 feet of the freeway. In the C-2, C-3, C-4 and SC commercial zones and the M-1 and M-2 industrial zones, detached freeway on-site signs are capped at 24 square feet and 12 feet in height, must be monument-style, and must sit in a landscaped planter at least four feet in radius, though motels, hotels, restaurants and gas stations in those zones can instead use the more generous highway-commercial sign allowance because of the freeway services they provide.

In the H-C highway commercial zone, detached signs can reach 200 square feet and 35 feet, one per developed parcel, capped at one square foot of sign area per lineal foot of street frontage. Attached freeway on-site signs in all zones are capped at one square foot per front foot of first-floor occupancy, with a hard ceiling of 200 square feet visible from the freeway and a maximum height of 20 feet; where these freeway rules conflict with another section of the chapter, the more restrictive one governs.