Decatur, GA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Decatur's Unified Development Ordinance prohibits digital and animated signage in two places. Sec. 9 lists the sign devices banned outright under the City's sign regulations, and among them are animated, flashing and digital changeable copy signs and billboards, listed separately from other banned devices such as roof signs, rotating signs, portable signs and off-premises signs. Sec. " Together the two sections mean there is no path to a lawful digital billboard, electronic message center or LED changeable-copy sign anywhere in the City, commercial, mixed-use or residential district alike; the ban isn't a size or brightness limit that a smaller unit could meet, it's a categorical prohibition on the sign type.

The general prohibited-signs list in Sec. 9 also bars off-premises signs and commercial product signs on residentially zoned property, both of which would otherwise be the typical hosts for a billboard-style structure. Sign permits generally run through the UDO Administrator's office under Sec. 5, with a 20-calendar-day review period, but that process has nothing to approve here: an application for a digital or billboard sign is barred at the threshold by Sec. 9 regardless of the site or district proposed within the City of Decatur, DeKalb County.