Kauai County, HI Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Kaua'i County Code § 15-4.3 defines a "flashing sign" as any lighted sign that, while in use, changes its light intensity or color, and a "moving sign" as one designed to exhibit physical movement of itself or its parts, definitions broad enough to reach LED and digital display billboards. Section 15-4.4 makes it unlawful to erect or maintain any aerial, flashing, moving, or roof sign anywhere in the county, alongside a separate ban on portable, wind, and off-premises signs. Because the ordinance lists specific permitted sign types by zoning district in § 15-4.5, ranging from six-square-foot wall signs in open, agricultural, and R-1 through R-6 districts up to 48-square-foot wall signs on larger commercial buildings, a digital or electronic message board falls outside every permitted category and cannot be authorized as a matter of course.

Section 15-4.4(e) leaves only one door open: a sign otherwise not permitted or exempted may still be erected if the County Engineer's Board of Appeals grants a variance under § 15-4.12. Absent that variance, the County Engineer enforces the ban directly under § 15-4.9(d), which gives the office police power to issue citations and bring civil actions, and under § 15-4.9(c), which lets the County Engineer order removal, alteration, or repair of any nonconforming or unlawful sign, or summarily remove one that poses an imminent danger to public safety.