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

080(F), Advertising Signs and Structures Near Freeways, sets a baseline rule first: any nonappurtenant freestanding outdoor advertising sign built beyond 500 feet of freeway right-of-way cannot have subject matter visible from that freeway, closing off a common workaround for billboards set back from the corridor. Sites within that 500-foot band, or with direct freeway frontage, get a tiered set of standards instead. A freeway-adjacent site can build to 25 feet, measured from the sign's top to finished grade at its base, rising to 35 feet if the base grade sits at least 10 feet below the freeway grade; a depressed freeway caps height at 25 feet regardless.

Sites with 250 feet or more of freeway frontage can go to 45 feet, or 55 feet with the same 10-foot grade differential. Regional Commercial District sites that are near but not adjacent to the freeway, within 500 feet of the right-of-way, top out at 55 feet. Sign area follows the same tiers: 100 square feet for the base freeway-adjacent category, 350 square feet for the 250-foot-frontage category, and 450 square feet for the non-adjacent Regional Commercial category, with the sign copy itself limited to 60 percent of the sign's overall height.

Design standards require architectural elements within the sign area, a decorative support-structure cover (flat plastic panels are barred), and landscaping with irrigation around the sign base, submitted with the permit application. The Development Services Director or a designee, not the Planning Commission, has final approval authority for any freeway-oriented sign that meets these subsection (F) requirements, making this an administrative rather than discretionary hearing process.