At long last, Humboldt County is updating its rules for signs and billboards!The County Planning Commission will discuss the proposed changes at its hearing this Thursday, Nov. 2 Nov. 16 Dec. 14 at 6pm. Many of the changes being proposed are from the 2017 County General Plan, which was adopted after many years of public hearings. This week, the County will begin the last step in the process of turning those recommendations into regulations by adopting a revised ordinance. After the Planning Commission's review, the ordinance will then be considered by the Board of Supervisors.
The draft ordinance includes some major improvements, many of which we've been advocating for years:
- A prohibition on digital billboards,
- No new billboards along highways or other "off-premise" signs (meaning they are not on the premises they are advertising for);
- Lighting requirements to protect the night sky for stargazers, people trying to sleep, and wildlife such as migrating birds and bats;
- Permit requirements for maintenance of existing billboards within sensitive habitat areas such as wetlands and stream corridors;
- Seven-year buyout period for phasing out billboards on a case-by-case basis to be determined by the County.
You can download the draft ordinances (note that there are separate docs for the Coastal and Inland Zones).
You can watch the hearing and comment either in-person, via Zoom, or by telephone (the Zoom link will be posted on the County's hearing calendar on the previous Friday).You can submit comments via email to
This will be the first of several hearings, so stay tuned! You can sign up for our action alerts and other updates by sending an email to alerts [AT] humboldtwaterkeeper.org.
