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

Vacaville's Permanent Signs chapter treats freeway signage as its own category, separate from ordinary freestanding signs. To qualify, a parcel, or a group of contiguous parcels tied together by a recorded easement restricting the freeway sign, must total at least five acres and lie within 300 feet of the nearest edge of the freeway right-of-way. Only one freeway sign is allowed per site. A single-tenant sign is capped at 175 square feet and a height of 25 feet above the freeway's elevation or 35 feet above grade at the sign, whichever is greater.

A multi-tenant sign can grow to 325 square feet, and its height climbs five additional feet per tenant up to a 60-foot ceiling. The Director of Community Development can approve a sign up to that 60-foot maximum, beyond the normal height limits, if the applicant shows a freeway overcrossing or other obstruction would otherwise block an approaching motorist's view from a quarter mile out. Sign panels must be uniform in material, color, and opacity, though up to 75 percent of the panel behind the lettering may be a different color, and panels must be shaped as a rectangle, triangle, trapezoid, circle, oval, parallelogram, or regular polygon.

Eligibility for a freeway sign is limited to specific use types: restaurants, service stations, new vehicle sales and service, hotels and motels, bars and lounges, recreation centers, and retail shopping centers with at least 80,000 square feet of floor area and one tenant occupying 20,000 square feet or more.