Denver, CO Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- New LED billboard faces
- Prohibited citywide
- Grandfathered LED billboards
- Only if permitted before 3-1-2010
- Change frequency limit
- No more than once per hour
- Illumination curfew
- Off 1:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m., dim at dusk
- Animation
- Prohibited on all billboards
Summary
Denver's zoning code bars new LED message surfaces on outdoor advertising billboards, grandfathering only devices with LEDs installed before March 1, 2010.
Outdoor general advertising devices shall not have message surfaces made entirely or partly of light emitting diodes (LEDs). Any general outdoor advertising device with one or more LED message surfaces that was permitted prior to March 1, 2010, shall be considered a nonconforming outdoor general advertising device and shall be allowed to continue in operation and maintained in accordance with the provisions of Section 12.9.2, Nonconforming Outdoor General Advertising Devices. The LEDs on any such device may not flash, blink or fluctuate, or change in any manner more frequently than once per hour, must be dimmed at dusk, and may not be lit between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 147 Update 3).
Full Breakdown
In the Billboard Use Overlay District, the Denver Zoning Code prohibits outdoor general advertising devices (billboards) from having message surfaces made entirely or partly of LEDs. A billboard with LED surfaces permitted before March 1, 2010 is grandfathered as legally nonconforming, but its LEDs cannot flash, blink, fluctuate, or change more than once per hour, must dim at dusk, and must go dark between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Even grandfathered billboards may not be flashing or animated signs under the code's separate definitions.
Violations & Fines
Building an unpermitted LED billboard face or operating one outside the grandfathered hours/change-rate limits is a zoning code violation subject to permit denial or revocation by the Zoning Administrator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a new digital billboard be built in Denver?
What about existing digital billboards?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Denver
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