Lawton, OK Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Lawton City Code § 18-9-1-907(A)(12) folds digital billboards into the same subsection that governs standard off-premise billboards, meaning a digital face must clear every general requirement, arterial-street location, C-4 or industrial-district zoning only, a 288-square-foot cap per face, an 80-foot height limit, a 25-foot setback, 900-foot spacing between signs and a 200-foot buffer from residential districts, and then satisfy four additional technical rules unique to changeable digital displays. The static image shown on a digital billboard must remain constant for not less than eight seconds before it can change, and the transition between one image and the next must fade out and back in over a period of one second rather than cutting or wiping.

The code bars any animated, flashing, scrolling, intermittent, or full-motion video content outright, regardless of the eight-second hold time, which rules out video advertising loops entirely. Finally, the sign's brightness must be adjusted so that it never causes glare or otherwise impairs the vision of a motor vehicle operator, a performance standard rather than a fixed foot-candle number, unlike the numeric brightness table Lawton uses for on-premises electronic message center signs under a separate provision. Because these rules sit inside the billboard subsection rather than the temporary or business sign categories, they apply only to off-premise digital advertising structures, not to a business's own digital sign on its storefront.