Las Cruces, NM Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Banned downtown
- Moving, flashing, or animated signs, all forms
- Includes
- Digital billboards, LED message boards, changing displays
- Still allowed
- Manually changed copy on display cases, kiosks, ground signs
- Citywide billboard size cap
- 300-400 sq ft depending on road type
- Fine
- $50-$300 per day, Sec. 36-13
Summary
Downtown Las Cruces bans moving, flashing, or animated signs outright, a category the code says includes searchlights, streamers, and spinners, which rules out digital billboards and LED message boards with changing displays anywhere in the Downtown, Main Street, or General Urban transect districts. Manually changeable copy on display cases and ground signs is still allowed, and billboards elsewhere in the city are capped at 300 to 400 square feet.
1.Prohibited Signs.a.Moving, flashing, or animated signs including but not limited to searchlights, streamers and spinners;b.Inflatable signs, such as but not limited to balloons, gas inflated signs or similar inflated signs;c.Portable signs, except for sidewalk signs as allowed in Table 10;d.Flags, other than those specifically allowed in Chapter 36, Signs;e.Outdoor image projections (signs projected from an external light source onto a building or structure) or any other similar devices.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 33 | Land Development Code: Supplement 28).
Full Breakdown
' That language reaches any digital billboard or electronic message center whose display changes or animates, since the display itself moves or flashes even if the structure holding it is otherwise conforming. The same subsection bans inflatable signs, most portable signs, unauthorized flags, and outdoor image projections. It does allow static changeable copy, letters or panels swapped by hand on display cases, suspended signs, kiosks, ground signs, and sidewalk signs, without a separate permit for each change, which is the mechanism downtown businesses use for menu boards and event listings instead of an animated screen.
Outside the downtown transect districts, Section 36-83 of the Land Development Code's general sign chapter allows billboards, though not specifically digital ones, only in C-2, C-3, M-1/M-2, or M-3 zoned property along roadways with at least 75 percent office, commercial, or industrial frontage; billboards along interstates max out at 400 square feet and 40 feet tall, and all other billboards max out at 300 square feet and 30 feet tall, spaced at least 1,000 feet apart. Chapter 36 itself does not separately address digital or electronic billboard technology outside the downtown ban, so a proposed digital billboard on a qualifying commercial corridor outside downtown would be evaluated against the same size, height, and spacing limits as a static one.
Violations & Fines
A moving, flashing, or animated sign erected in the Downtown, Main Street, or General Urban district is a Chapter 36 violation subject to a fine of not less than $50.00 and not more than $300.00 per day under Section 36-13, and the sign code administrator can order it removed from the right-of-way, with the owner given 30 days to reclaim it before it is recycled. The police department's code enforcement division issues the citations and can file the case in municipal court.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a business install a digital billboard in downtown Las Cruces?
What about digital billboards outside the downtown districts?
Are changeable-letter signs allowed downtown if they're not animated?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Las Cruces
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