Lee's Summit, MO Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 9.240.B requires a special use permit before erecting a billboard or adding a digital screen or face to an existing one, on top of meeting every standard in Article 9. Section 9.240.G layers additional rules onto general billboards for "digital electronic billboards": the sign face can change from one message to another using a "multiple advertisement display format," but the transition must be immediate and simultaneous across the whole display, and "each scene or advertisement shall be displayed for a minimum of eight seconds before changing to another so as not to simulate a moving display." Brightness is separately capped: a digital billboard cannot display light "of such intensity or brilliance as to cause glare or otherwise impair the vision of a driver," and the Director sets and can periodically adjust the sign's illumination intensity after installation; that decision can be appealed to the Board of Zoning Adjustment under Article 14.

Digital billboards inherit the general billboard placement rules in Section 9.240.C-E: they are limited to the B-P, PI-1 and PI-2 zoning districts, must sit within 660 feet of I-470, US Highway 50 or Route 350, cannot stand within 1,500 feet of a residential district, an interchange or the City's corporate boundary, and need a 90-foot setback from the highway right-of-way, property lines and other structures. Spacing between two digital billboards is 3,000 feet, double the 1,500-foot spacing required between ordinary billboards. Maximum size is 1,200 square feet per face, 30 feet in height and 60 feet in length. Section 9.240.I requires an annual structural inspection report from a Missouri-licensed engineer, due every July 1; "failure to submit a report shall result in the immediate revocation of the sign's permit."