Corvallis, OR Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Corvallis's Land Development Code does not use the word billboard; a digital billboard falls under Section 4.7.20's definition of Sign, Variable Message, covering any sign that uses manual, mechanical, electro-mechanical, electronic, radiofrequency, fiberoptic, or other automated means to change its message or copy at timed intervals, expressly including LED displays, incandescent luminaries, electronic message centers, and video display boards. Section 4.7.60.01.d sets the core rule: the interval of change for a Variable Message Sign, whether the change is manual or automated, cannot be less than twenty minutes, and the sign cannot exhibit the flashing, blinking, fluctuating, or chaser and scintillating effects that Section 4.7.30.g prohibits outright for every sign type in the City.

Section 4.7.60.01.e carves out one exception: the portion of a Variable Message Sign that displays time and temperature information does not have to obey the 20-minute interval. Beyond the message-change rules, a Variable Message Sign still has to fit within the same Sign Area Allocation, height, and setback tables in Section 4.7.70 that govern every other sign in its zone, and Section 4.7.50 requires a Sign Permit from the Development Services Division before installation, with the Director confirming compliance before issuing it. A sign built or operated in violation of the 20-minute rule or the flashing prohibition is treated as an unpermitted sign under Section 4.7.30's opening sentence, which bars erecting, installing, maintaining, altering, or using any sign not specifically authorized by the chapter.