Green Bay, WI Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Approval
- Conditional use permit, Plan Commission and City Council
- Message hold time
- 8 seconds or more, no animation
- Transition time
- 1 second or less
- Brightness cap
- 0.3 foot-candles over ambient light
- Residential spill-over
- No more than 0.2 foot-candles at the property line
- Mitigation
- At least 5 points per new sign face
- Shutoff authority
- Director of Public Works or designee
Summary
Green Bay allows digital billboards only through a conditional use permit under Municipal Code § 30-63. Messages must change in one second or less, hold for at least eight seconds, and never animate. Brightness is capped at 0.3 foot-candles over ambient light, and every new sign must be paid for by removing existing billboards.
Multiple message signs are permitted as a conditional use. ... (1) Standards for multiple message signs. a. The transition time, or the time it takes to change the message (electronically, via louver rotation, or other means) shall be one second or less. b. The time the message remains in a fixed position shall be eight seconds or more, and movement or animation is prohibited. c. Audio speakers and all forms of pyrotechnics are prohibited. d. Electronic multiple message signs (digital billboards) shall be equipped with automatic dimming capability, and light produced by such signs shall not exceed 0.3 foot-candles over ambient light levels. ... e. Spill-over light exceeding 0.2 foot-candles as measured at a residential property line is prohibited. ... a new multiple message sign (whether new construction or sign replacement) shall be mitigated. ... a new multiple message sign must earn at least five mitigation points per sign face.
Full Breakdown
Digital billboards in Green Bay are regulated as "multiple message signs" in Chapter 30. Section 30-63 permits them only as a conditional use, so the Plan Commission and City Council review each one, and the sign must also meet every other regulation in the article.
Operation standards come first. The transition between messages takes one second or less, and each message holds for eight seconds or more. Movement and animation are prohibited, as are audio speakers and all forms of pyrotechnics. Every electronic sign needs automatic dimming, and its light cannot exceed 0.3 foot-candles over ambient. Ambient light is read at least 30 minutes past sunset with the sign off or displaying all black copy, the lit reading is taken with all white copy, and both are measured perpendicular to the sign face. Measuring distance scales with size: 100 feet for a sign of 100 square feet or smaller, 150 feet up to 350 square feet, 200 feet up to 650 square feet, and 250 feet up to 700 square feet. Spill-over light above 0.2 foot-candles at a residential property line is prohibited.
Because the city's total number of off-premises signs is capped at the inventory in § 30-64 (the signs and sites legally permitted or existing as of August 19, 1986), a new digital face has to be mitigated. The applicant earns at least five points per face by removing other billboards: five for a nonconforming sign in the CBD, a natural area or a historic district, four for any other nonconforming billboard, three for a conforming one that could structurally carry a digital face, two for any other, plus one extra for a sign visible from an interstate, freeway or principal arterial. Swapping out a static face on the same site earns nothing. Relocating an existing digital sign needs three billboard faces removed instead of a plan.
Location limits also apply: the message must face a state or federal highway, intersection setbacks run from 100 to 500 feet by size, and signs stay 100 feet from residential districts, schools and parks, or 400 feet when the message faces them.
Violations & Fines
The Director of Public Works or a designee orders a sign turned off without delay if it interferes with a traffic signal or control, or malfunctions into hazardous glare or another traffic hazard. The owner must then meet City staff, and the sign stays dark until staff approve restarting it. Owners must keep 24/7 contact information on file with Public Works, and every approved sign must give the Department a way to switch it off remotely.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & Official References
Other rules in Green Bay
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Digital Billboards in Nearby Cities
How other cities in Brown County handle digital billboards.