DuPage County, IL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 37-1103(C) governs "Electronic Display Techniques," defined to include any sign portion using LEDs, fiber optics, light bulbs or other illumination devices to display alphanumeric characters, graphics or symbols, including computer-programmable and microprocessor-controlled displays. The flat ban is geographic: within 500 feet of an Interstate Highway or a State Toll Authority roadway, no sign or portion of a sign may operate using electronic display techniques at all, and it may not turn on an axis, rotate, revolve or otherwise physically move. Outside that 500-foot buffer, an electronic sign must hold each full image, or any changing portion of it, as a static display for a minimum of 10 seconds, and no part of the image may flash, scroll, twirl, change color or otherwise imitate movement; when the image does change, the transition has to happen through instantaneous re-pixelation rather than a fade, wipe or dissolve.

Brightness is separately capped by a photometric standard: no more than 5,000 nits (candelas per square meter) during daylight hours, dropping to no more than 500 nits between dusk and dawn, both measured at the sign face at maximum brightness. The ordinance also bars audio speakers or pyrotechnics as part of any sign's operation, and message center signs generally, electronic or not, are allowed only as conditional uses under Section 37-1103(A)(9), meaning a petitioner must obtain County Board approval through the conditional-use process before installing one.