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Texas billboard rules: spacing and controlled roads
What Texas's rules say about a new billboard beside an interstate or a federal-aid primary road. Each figure is from the text our rule pack cites.
Not legal advice; confirm with the state and the city.
Spacing between signs
The gap a new sign needs to the next sign on the same side of the road, by 43 Tex. Admin. Code 21.180:
| Road | Gap to the next sign |
|---|---|
| Interstate | 1,500 ft |
| Freeway that isn't an interstate | 1,500 ft |
| Federal-aid primary road | 300 ft inside city limits, 750 ft outside |
- The freeway figure covers frontage roads too (21.180(a)). In a certified city, a freeway sign needs 1,500 ft to a sign outside city limits and 500 ft to one inside (21.180(d)).
- Certified cities issue their own sign permits (21.192).
- Inside a city on a primary that isn't a freeway: 750 ft to a sign outside city limits, 300 ft to one inside (21.180(e)).
- A city's extraterritorial jurisdiction doesn't count as inside city limits (21.180(g)).
- Signs screened from each other by obstructions don't need the spacing (21.180(h)).
Measured along the right-of-way, perpendicular to the sign centres. (43 Tex. Admin. Code 21.180(f))
The 660 ft controlled area
A sign within 660 ft of an interstate or federal-aid primary road's right-of-way needs a state permit. Texas's rule is 43 Tex. Admin. Code 21.153.
The federal frame is 23 U.S.C. 131(b)-(d).
Find billboard sites in Texas
The billboard site finder scores sites by traffic and checks this spacing and the controlled area. Area searches come with a monthly plan.
Other states: Florida, Missouri, California.
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Not legal advice; confirm with the state and the city.