Lincoln County, SD Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Lincoln County Code § 155.180 states the purpose of its off-premise sign subchapter is to prevent the uncontrolled use of billboards and preserve the county's landscape while still letting off-premise signs inform the traveling public, through standards for size, illumination and separation. In the A-1 agricultural and RC districts, § 155.181(A) confines off-premise signs to directional signs for a business, caps them at nine square feet and 16 feet tall, limits them to one face per direction, and, critically for a digital or electronic billboard, flatly bars illumination: a sign there shall not be illuminated nor shall blinking or flashing lights be used.

That single sentence rules out an LED or changeable-message billboard anywhere in the county's agricultural and rural-commercial land. In the C, I-1 and I-2 commercial and industrial districts, § 155.181(B) allows a larger off-premise sign, up to 288 square feet and 40 feet tall, with no more than one face per direction, kept out of required side and rear setbacks, and separated by at least 600 feet, measured along the right-of-way, from the next off-premise sign facing the same or a different road. Illuminated signs in these districts must be shielded, shaded, or directed so the light does not bother neighboring property or drivers, a lower bar than the outright A-1/RC ban but still a real limit on how a digital display can be aimed.

An off-premise sign larger than 288 square feet, up to a 672-square-foot ceiling, or with more than one face per direction needs a conditional use permit under § 155.182(A), reviewed under the county's §§ 155.200-155.212 conditional-use process.