Legis
Transportation
AB 2024, Chapter 208, Statutes of 2026 · Monday 14 September 2026

Outdoor advertising displays: permits: landscaped freeways: relocation agreements

AB 2024 streamlines billboard permits and allows relocation of signs affected by landscaped-freeway rules.

The law lets outdoor advertising displays be relocated rather than removed in certain cases, while preserving limits on the statewide number of nonconforming signs.

What the law does

  • Bars the Department of Transportation from delaying any stage of a new-display permit application because a new interstate or primary highway project is not formally complete, if the highway is open to traffic within 1,000 feet of the proposed site.
  • Allows a display that violates landscaped-freeway restrictions to be removed with compensation or relocated without compensation three years after the freeway is designated and becomes a landscaped freeway.
  • Allows any governmental entity to make billboard relocation agreements, including agreements allowing a relocated sign to become a message center.
  • Requires the Department of Transportation to issue a permit without additional consideration or compensation from a local entity or state agency when a qualifying relocation agreement is in place.
  • Requires relocated or converted displays to obtain a new permit, meet applicable outdoor-advertising rules, avoid reducing federal highway funds, and avoid a statewide net increase in displays along landscaped freeway segments.

Who it affects

  • Outdoor advertising sign and permit owners.
  • Cities, counties, city and counties, and other governmental entities negotiating sign relocations.
  • The Department of Transportation.