Hackensack, NJ Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Billboards
- Prohibited citywide
- Electronic message centers
- Banned as animated signs
- Changeable-copy signs
- Banned except gas price/theater
- Enforcement
- Zoning Officer, Municipal Court
- Penalty basis
- Chapter 1, § 1-15
- Continuing violation
- Each day a separate offense
Summary
Hackensack's zoning code bans billboards outright and separately prohibits electronic message centers, changeable-copy displays, and any animated or mechanical sign contrivance citywide. Only two narrow content exceptions survive: gasoline price signs and theater canopy or marquee displays. The Zoning Officer enforces the ban under Chapter 175's sign article.
Animated signs and mechanical contrivances. No sign erected shall contain flashers, animators or mechanical movement or contrivances of any kind, including clocks and time and weather information (such as electronic message centers). ... Billboard or billboard signs. ... Any changeable-copy sign, except for permitted gasoline service station price signs and canopy or marquee signs for theaters, that are designed to allow the sign copy to be changed or altered without undertaking a physical alteration to the sign (such as changing sign panels or repainting the sign), i.e., through the use of movable letters, electronic displays, interchangeable parts or other means.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: rev 4592721; v20 updated 2026-01-06; through 01-06-2026).
Full Breakdown
Chapter 175, Article XIII of the Hackensack Zoning Ordinance treats billboards and digital signage as prohibited signs, not as a permitted-with-conditions category. 4H(4)(q) flatly bars "billboard or billboard signs," matching the chapter's own definition of BILLBOARD as a sign advertising off-premises products supported on ground uprights, never attached to walls or roofs. A separate clause, subsection (d), bars "animated signs and mechanical contrivances," naming "clocks and time and weather information (such as electronic message centers)" as examples, so LED and electronic message-center displays fall under the same ban as flashing or rotating devices.
Subsection (z) closes the loop on changeable-copy technology generally, prohibiting any sign designed to let its copy change without physical alteration, whether by movable letters, electronic displays or interchangeable parts. The only carve-outs are gasoline service station price signs and canopy or marquee signs for theaters. 4F.
Violations & Fines
Erecting a billboard, electronic message center or animated sign is enforced under § 175-13.4G(1), with penalties set in Chapter 1, § 1-15 of the City Code; each day of a continuing violation is a separate offense, and the Zoning Officer may issue a summons for each. The City may also pursue an action at law or in equity for injunctive relief, and summonses are heard in Hackensack Municipal Court.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I put up a digital billboard in Hackensack?
Are electronic message center signs allowed anywhere in the city?
What happens if I already have a billboard on my property?
Who enforces the sign code and what is the penalty?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Hackensack
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