Gilbert, AZ Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Billboards
- Prohibited Town-wide (§ 5.6.3.C)
- Applies to
- Digital and static billboards alike
- Enforcing official
- Development Services Director or designee
- Severability
- Ban survives even if other sign rules are struck down
- Adoption authority
- A.R.S. § 9-462.01, Town police power
Summary
The Town of Gilbert's Land Development Code bans billboards outright, and the ban covers digital and electronic displays the same as static panels. Section 5.6.3 lists Billboards among the Town's prohibited sign types, and a standalone severability clause in Section 5.6.16 protects that specific ban even if a court strikes down other parts of the sign chapter.
5.6.3 Prohibited Signs
The following signs are prohibited in the Town of Gilbert unless protected by state statute, federal law, or otherwise allowed in this section or Temporary Uses.
[...] C. Billboards [...]
Billboard Sign. A sign or structure, other than a Temporary Sign, portraying information or directing attention to a business, activity, commodity service, entertainment, or communication that is not conducted, sold or offered at the parcel on which the sign or structure is located, or which does not pertain to the parcel upon which the sign or structure is located.
Full Breakdown
Gilbert's Land Development Code, Chapter 1 Section 5.6 (Sign Regulations), flatly prohibits billboards inside town limits. Section 5.6.3, titled "Prohibited Signs," opens by stating that the following signs are prohibited in the Town of Gilbert unless protected by state statute, federal law, or otherwise allowed in this section or Temporary Uses, and item C of that lettered list is "Billboards." Nothing in the exemption list at Section 5.6.2, which covers only government signs, signs inside a building, vehicle signs, traffic control devices, signs protected by state or federal law such as political signs under A.R.S. § 16-1019, and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Overlay signage, carves out an exception for billboards, digital or otherwise.
The Land Development Code's Section 2.0 Terms defines "Billboard Sign" as a sign or structure, other than a Temporary Sign, portraying information or directing attention to a business, activity, commodity service, entertainment, or communication that is not conducted, sold or offered at the parcel on which the sign or structure is located, or which does not pertain to the parcel upon which the sign or structure is located. Because that definition is keyed to off-parcel advertising content rather than to lighting or display technology, it reaches LED and digital billboard faces the same way it reaches a static painted panel, the code separately acknowledges digital and LED signage in its "Intermittent Sign" definition, but that recognition does not create a carve-out from the Section 5.6.3 billboard ban.
Section 5.6.1 authorizes and directs the Development Services Director, or a designee, to administer and enforce the entire sign chapter, including the prohibited-signs list, and states the section is adopted under the Town's police power and A.R.S. § 9-462.01. Section 5.6.16.C adds a standalone severability clause covering only billboards: even if a court declares some other part of the sign section unconstitutional, that ruling shall not affect the prohibition on Billboards as contained in this section, the Zoning Code, or the Gilbert Code of Ordinances, or any adopting ordinance. The chapter carries a February 23, 2023 revision date.
Violations & Fines
Erecting a billboard, digital or static, violates Section 5.6.3.C's prohibited-signs list and falls under the Development Services Director's enforcement authority set out in Section 5.6.1. Because Section 5.6.16.C singles out the billboard ban for its own severability protection, a successful challenge against other parts of the sign chapter will not reopen billboards as an allowed use: the prohibition remains independently enforceable even if surrounding provisions are struck down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Gilbert allow digital billboards anywhere in town?
What makes a sign a "billboard" under Gilbert's code?
Who enforces the billboard ban?
Could a ruling against other Gilbert sign rules also strike down the billboard ban?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Gilbert
Compare Gilbert to another location·View the Arizona sign regulations overview
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