Dane County, WI Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Sec. 801(9) defines a billboard as 'an off-premise advertising sign,' distinguishing it from the on-premise ground, pylon and wall signs that a business erects for itself. Sec. 802(4)(g), Electronic message sign design, then draws the line that matters for digital billboards: paragraph 1 states that on-premise ground and pylon signs shall be the only type of sign that may incorporate electronic message components to the sign's copy area, and paragraph 2 separately prohibits electronic message boards on the exterior walls of buildings. Because a billboard is off-premise by definition, it falls outside the one category the code allows to carry an electronic message component, making a true digital billboard non-compliant on its face in unincorporated Dane County.

For the on-premise electronic signs the code does permit, Sec. 802(4)(g) layers on operating limits: copy cannot change more than once every 6 seconds (paragraph 3); a malfunctioning sign must be turned off until the malfunction is corrected (paragraph 4); brightness is capped at 5,000 nits during daylight and 500 nits from dusk to dawn as measured at the sign face at maximum brightness (paragraph 5); and every electronic sign must carry a photosensitive dimming mechanism that automatically adjusts brightness and contrast to ambient light (paragraph 6).

Separately, the county's billboard-specific standards in Sec. 804(7) cap any billboard's copy area at 300 square feet, height at 35 feet above the adjacent highway centerline, and require 1,000 feet of separation from other billboards and 300 feet from existing on-premise signs, none of those billboard provisions authorize an electronic component, reinforcing that digital billboards sit outside the permitted use.