Boulder, CO Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 9-9-21(b)(3) lists the sign types Boulder prohibits outright, and off-premises billboards sit near the top of that list. Subparagraph (H) bars a 'non-appurtenant or off-premises commercial sign not appurtenant and clearly incidental to the principal use of the property where located,' and the section's legislative intent in subsection (a)(2) says the city council adopted the sign code in part to protect the community from 'the visual discord that results from the unrestricted proliferation of signs, especially off-premises billboards.' There is no permit path around this prohibition for a true billboard; the ban applies citywide regardless of zoning district.

Digital signage that stays on the same premises is treated differently. Subparagraph (b)(3)(G) prohibits 'moving' signs, defined to include visible mechanical movement or apparent movement achieved by electrical or electronic means, but it carves out an exception for message changes: an electronic sign that changes its message no more than once per minute counts as a copy change, not a prohibited moving sign, and is therefore allowed subject to the sign's other area, height and illumination limits under subsection (e) and Table 9-9. A vertical rotating cylindrical sign is also exempted from the moving-sign ban if its rotating part is twelve inches or less in diameter and thirty inches or less in height. Any electronic sign is still subject to the illumination rules in subparagraph (b)(3)(E), including a ban on directly illuminated signs in residential and agricultural zones and an 11:00 p.m. cutoff for illumination near residential property.