Coconut Creek, FL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 13-458 lists the signs prohibited anywhere in the City of Coconut Creek, and items (9) and (20) name billboards and off-premises commercial advertising signs outright. Sec. 13-457 defines a billboard as a structure advertising a commercial establishment, activity, product, service or entertainment that is available somewhere other than on the property where the sign stands. Item (19) closes the gap by banning every sign the sign code does not specifically permit, so a digital face on a billboard structure has no route to approval.

A digital sign is its own defined term: any LED, programmable ink or other display that changes words, pictures or video by remote or automatic means. Sec. 13-462(2) permits digital signs only for places of assembly marquees, fuel price signs, MainStreet pedestrian plazas, MainStreet pedestrian arcades, places of assembly ground signs and parking structure status signs. Plaza and arcade displays can promote only businesses located on the premises, and arcade signs cannot face a roadway and must sit at least 15 feet from the right-of-way edge.

Where digital is allowed, Sec. 13-460(p) sets the limits. Brightness cannot exceed 0.3 foot-candle above ambient light measured 250 feet from the sign face, and each sign needs a light sensing device. A sign within 250 feet of a freestanding residential building must hold 0.3 foot-candle at that property line, backed by a certification at design review. A malfunctioning sign must turn off or freeze. Outside business hours a display can run only emergency messages declared by the mayor. Places of assembly ground signs under Sec. 13-463(k) show static images with a dwell time of at least one minute, no transitions, and a digital area of no more than 50 percent of the sign structure. Replacing an existing sign with a digital one is a structural alteration that needs permits and is barred unless a digital sign would otherwise be allowed.