Franklin County, NC Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Franklin County's Unified Development Code treats digital and changeable-copy signage as a feature of an otherwise permitted permanent sign rather than as its own sign type. Under § 8.4.2(D), a monument or other on-premise ground sign may include a reader board or electronic message board, but that changeable area cannot exceed 50% of the sign's total permitted area, and the display cannot give the illusion of movement or change its message more frequently than every 6 minutes. Section 8.4.3(D) applies the identical 50% cap to changeable copy or electronic message board area on a wall sign.

Because the digital component is capped as a percentage of the underlying sign, its maximum absolute size tracks whatever ground or wall sign standard applies under the § 8.4.1 table; in a nonresidential district, for instance, a monument sign is capped at 32 square feet, or up to 64 square feet for a multi-tenant site, so an electronic message board on that sign could occupy at most half of that area. The code does not carve out a separate digital standard for freestanding billboards along US 1, US 64, or US 401; any changeable display on an outdoor advertising sign permitted under § 8.4.5 in the Heavy Industrial district would still have to satisfy the general prohibition on signs that give an illusion of movement in § 8.3.5(B), which bars blinking, flashing, or intermittent lights and animation outright, a stricter standard than the 6-minute limit governing monument and wall signs.