Stafford County, VA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Article VIII of the Zoning Ordinance, adopted in its current form by Ord. No. O17-04 on January 24, 2017, opens with a stated intent to regulate sign size, illumination, movement and location while staying within First Amendment bounds. Section 28-122 lists three categories of signs 'prohibited in all districts': general prohibitions, prohibitions based on materials, and prohibitions based on location. Electronic message center signs fall in the materials-based list at subsection (2)(b), grouped with flashing or scrolling lights, illuminated neon tubing outlining a building, and signs painted directly on a wall.

The same subsection carves the prohibition back for flags expressly permitted elsewhere in the article and for message-content changes occurring more frequently than once every five seconds, the only textual exception to the EMC ban. Despite the outright ban, section 28-124(2) still exempts the changing of messages on marquees, changeable copy signs, electronic message center signs, or an existing permitted sign from needing a new sign permit, which only matters for EMC signs lawfully installed before the ban or approved through a comprehensive sign plan.

Section 28-123(g) lets the board approve a comprehensive sign plan by conditional use permit that can set the 'frequency of message changes' and 'hours of lighting' for a site, a mechanism by which a digital sign could still be authorized case by case. Any EMC sign installed without one of these paths is a straightforward zoning violation.