Pitt County, NC Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 9(A)(1) defines an Electronically Controlled Message Sign as one where the copy changes automatically on a lampbank so that the display does not run continuously in travel mode, and any message stays stationary for a minimum of two seconds. That definition draws a hard line against the Flashing Sign category defined right next to it, a sign with an intermittent, blinking, scintillating or flashing light source or the illusion of one; the ordinance says outright that an electronically controlled message sign is not a flashing sign.

That distinction matters because Section 9(D)(1), the Prohibited Signs list, bans signs with moving, revolving, rotating, flashing, blinking or intermittently-illuminated elements achieved by electrical, electronic or mechanical means countywide, but carves out three named exceptions: time, temperature and date signs, traditional barber poles, and electronically controlled message signs. A digital sign that keeps each message static for two full seconds and never scrolls or crawls fits the exception; one that runs continuously in travel mode or holds a message for less than two seconds falls back into the banned Flashing Sign or Animated Sign category and cannot be erected.

Electronically controlled message signs may be attached to any principal advertising, on-premises or identification sign, but their square footage counts toward that principal sign's maximum allowed area under Section 9(B), so a business cannot add a digital component without shrinking the rest of its sign to stay under the cap. Any sign, digital or otherwise, needs a permit from the Zoning Administrator issued under Section 3(I) unless it falls on the short exempt-signs list in Section 9(C).