Skagit County, WA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

29, is built around a default prohibition rather than a permit process for the kind of electronic display most people mean by a digital billboard. 070(1) prohibits billboards outright except when specifically permitted per Division 1 of Title 14 or in the Master Planned Resort zone, meaning a billboard is unlawful anywhere in the county unless the applicable zoning chapter names it as an allowed use. 070(4) adds strobe lights, searchlights, and revolving lights to the prohibited list; together those two subsections cover the changing-message and animated-graphic features that define a digital billboard.

050(8), the general Moving Signs standard, restates the same limits for every sign application: no revolving or rotating beacon resembling an emergency light, and no flashing devices, strobe lights, or searchlights, although the code carves out illuminated signs that indicate customary public information and neon or accent lighting used to advertise a business, provided it stays compatible with the surrounding rural development. 040(4)(b)(ii), but that grandfathering does not authorize converting a static sign to an electronic message board, since that change would trigger the flashing and moving sign prohibitions above.