Charles County, MD Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Article XIX, Signs, § 297-319, General provisions, treats outdoor advertising, the code's term for billboards, as its own category apart from on-premises business signage. Subsection H states plainly that "the erection or construction of new outdoor advertising signs and billboards of any size are prohibited," with the only carve-out being the event signs listed in § 297-325. An existing billboard survives as a legal nonconforming structure, but if it's damaged or destroyed beyond 50% of the cost to rebuild it, the owner must remove it; removal of billboards along federal-aid primary highway rights-of-way is additionally governed by the state Transportation Article and federal Title 23.

Lighting is addressed separately in Subsection K, "Adverse and unsafe illumination signs": no sign, billboard or otherwise, may emit illumination or glare onto any public highway, roadway, or right-of-way in a way that affects the safe and efficient movement of vehicles. That sits alongside the countywide fixture standards at § 297-306, which require full-cutoff or shielded lighting for most exterior fixtures, and within the Activity Center Zones, § 297-97H(3)(c) separately requires any illuminated sign to be lit by external, full cut-off fixtures rather than internally lit, specifically to cut sky glow and glare.

Every sign, illuminated or not, also needs a Charles County sign permit from the Zoning Officer before it's built, altered, or illuminated, and an illegal sign that isn't removed within 10 days of a written violation notice can be taken down by the County at the owner's expense.