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

Tustin City Code Section 9404b(3) restricts freestanding freeway signs to businesses offering eating facilities, lodging accommodations or automobile services, stating the purpose of a freeway sign is to provide identification for businesses that provide services to the freeway motorist. Only businesses located directly adjacent to the freeway right-of-way, or separated from it by a frontage road, may request one. Under Section 9404b, these signs are one of the categories that require Planning Commission review and a conditional use permit before they can be erected, processed under the conditional use permit procedures of the Tustin Zoning Code with the same appeal rights that apply to other CUP decisions.

The sign must be oriented toward and visible from the closest freeway lanes, and it must maintain a minimum twenty-five-foot setback from a non-freeway property line, or fifty feet from another freestanding sign on an adjacent site. Height and size are capped: the sign cannot exceed twenty-four feet in height or fifty square feet in area, and the code directs that it be no higher or larger than necessary to provide identification to the freeway motorist, meaning the Planning Commission can scale a proposal down even within those caps.

The category is distinct from the separate pole-sign and freeway adjacent digital display billboard provisions in the same subsection, each of which carries its own size, height and approval rules.