Janesville, WI Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 28-189(d) of the Janesville Code of General Ordinances governs any off-premises ground sign, commonly a billboard, that meets the chapter's definition of an electronic message sign. Unlike a standard off-premises sign, a digital billboard cannot be built, rebuilt or displayed until the Plan Commission reviews and approves a conditional sign permit under Section 28-338. In that review the Commission weighs the sign's relationship to nearby off-premises and on-premises signs, its impact on existing residences regardless of how the underlying parcel is zoned, and its effect on redevelopment of the sign parcel, including whether an existing off-premises sign is simply being converted to electronic.

Digital billboards may only sit on land zoned business or industrial, must be spaced at least 750 feet from any other off-premises sign, and must clear residential or agricultural zoning by 1,200 feet (or 600 feet where the face is not visible from that district), though the Commission can shrink that buffer to 600 feet on a case-by-case conditional permit. Size and height are hard caps: each face tops out at 300 square feet, 600 square feet total for a double-faced structure, and the whole sign cannot exceed 30 feet above grade.

Operationally, Section 28-189(d)(11) bars any graphic that could be mistaken for a traffic signal, sets an eight-second minimum hold time between message changes, and forbids moving graphics entirely. A digital billboard also cannot replace an existing nonconforming off-premises sign. A separate rule in Section 28-148 covers on-premises electronic message signs, readerboards on the same lot as the business, which follow different height and hour limits by sign district rather than the Plan Commission's case-by-case billboard review.