Dallas, TX Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Sec. 308 lets certain nonconforming detached non-premise signs, what most people call billboards, convert to digital display technology, but only through a face-modification permit from the building official followed by a demolition permit to remove conventional sign face under the exchange ratio in subsection (d): for every one square foot of face converted to digital, three square feet of conventional non-premise sign face must come down elsewhere in the city, with at least one removed structure within five miles of the converted sign. Subsection (e) caps the program at a maximum of 50 non-premise digital locations citywide; the director time-stamps applications in the order received, and if more complete applications arrive than permits remain, the director runs a lottery to distribute what's left.

Location limits are strict: a single-face support structure needs 1,500 feet of separation from another digital display oriented the same direction on the same expressway, and a two-face structure needs 2,000 feet; no digital sign may sit within 300 feet of a residential-district lot, within 500 feet of a lot in a historic district, or within 2,000 feet of the Trinity River south of the Elm and West Forks confluence. Subsection (c) requires every digital sign, existing or new, to comply with Title 43 Texas Administrative Code Sec.

163, 'Electronic Signs,' and with all federal, state, and local lighting and safety standards covering brightness, message duration, and proximity to interchanges and ramps, updated automatically as those standards change.