Elgin, IL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Elgin Municipal Code section 19.50.090.I regulates electronic changeable copy graphics, the code's term for digital sign panels, and shuts the door on billboard-style use: subsection I.5.f states the panel 'shall not be operated, in whole or in part, as an off-premises street graphic,' meaning an electronic message board advertising a business at another location is prohibited citywide. Where digital signs are allowed at all, they must be built as part of a monument graphic (I.1) and only in the CF Community Facility, RB Residential Business (on lots of 4+ acres), NB Neighborhood Business, AB Area Business, ORI Office Research Industrial, CC2 Center City, GI General Industrial and CI Commercial Industrial districts (I.2).

The electronic display panel is capped at whichever is smallest: 50% of the monument's total allowable sign area, 40 square feet for a standalone monument, or 100 square feet for a shopping-center identification monument (I.3). Operationally, the display must show static images only, no animation, scrolling, flashing, spinning or video (I.5.a); each image must hold for a minimum of 10 seconds and change with an instant cut, not a fade or dissolve (I.5.b, c); and brightness is capped at 5,000 nits in daylight and 500 nits between dusk and dawn, with a mandatory ambient-light sensor to auto-dim the panel (I.5.d).

A malfunctioning panel must freeze on one image, go black, or shut off (I.5.e). Drive-through order-board panels get a narrow exception under 19.50.090.D.4: they may run at a faster rate of change than the 10-second floor because they respond to live customer interaction, but they still cannot exceed the size or district limits.