Jefferson County, AL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 1404 of the Jefferson County Zoning Regulations regulates billboards, off-premise advertising signs, separately from the general sign standards in Section 1403, and digital billboards draw an extra layer of restriction on top of the base billboard rules. A standard billboard is capped at 672 square feet per face, may have no more than two faces, and cannot be erected within 1,000 feet of another legally erected billboard measured along the same side of the street or highway. That spacing requirement nearly doubles for digital billboards: wherever one or both of the two signs being compared is digital, the minimum gap grows to 1,500 feet on the same side of the road, and to 750 feet (rather than the standard 500) when the signs face each other from opposite sides.

09, covering static-message display, refresh timing and brightness. Unlike ordinary billboards, which the code allows on other roadways as a Special Use approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission, digital billboards are carved out of that discretionary path, the code states they are not eligible for Special Use approval and must instead meet the fixed billboard standards outright. No billboard permit, digital or otherwise, is issued without the applicant first documenting removal of an existing billboard of equal or greater size, and an application/permit fee applies per the fee schedule adopted by the County Commission.