Harford County, MD Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Code of Harford County § 267-33B(2) governs digital signage countywide. Electronic message boards are permitted only as freestanding signs in the B1, B2, B3, CI, LI and GI Zoning Districts, capped at 60 square feet, and the code is explicit that they "shall display only on-premises messages, or time and/or temperature displays," which rules out off-premises digital advertising, the very thing a digital billboard sells. Temporary or portable electronic message boards are banned outright. An electronic message board may show only alphabetic or numeric characters, with no graphics, pictures, photographs or video, and no animation, motion, flashing, blinking or shimmering is allowed.

A single message segment must display for at least 2 seconds and a full message cycle must finish within 10 seconds, and any horizontally traveling text must move between 16 and 32 light columns per second. Section 267-33B(3) applies the same on-premises-only, 20-square-foot cap to electronic message boards used as wall signs in the same districts, and § 267-33B(9) limits any property to one electronic message board of any permitted type. Layered on top, § 267-33F(6) prohibits "variable message boards" outright in every zoning district, a separate defined sign type covering electronic or mechanical displays that change other than through the narrowly permitted electronic message board format.

Because true off-premises billboards under § 267-33B(7) are confined to the GI District and electronic message boards are restricted to on-premises content, a digital, off-site advertising billboard has no path to legal approval anywhere in unincorporated Harford County.