Livonia, MI Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

09 of the Livonia Zoning Ordinance flatly prohibits erecting or maintaining a billboard or other outdoor advertising sign on any parcel in the city, and that ban extends to using a parcel for that purpose. The only carve-out covers billboards lawfully in place before the Ordinance took effect and signs the district regulations expressly allow, so a new freestanding advertising billboard, digital or static, cannot be sited anywhere in Livonia. 10(2) lets it carry a variable electronic message component covering no more than 50 percent of the ground sign's area.

Each message must hold for a minimum of eight seconds, any transition between messages must complete within one second, and the change must occur simultaneously across the entire face of the display, so scrolling or fading transitions are not allowed. The sign cannot face any residentially zoned property. Brightness is capped by a nits chart in the ordinance: red-only displays cannot exceed 3,150 nits by day and 1,125 nits at night, green-only 6,300 day and 2,250 night, amber-only 4,690 day and 1,675 night, and full-color displays 7,000 day and 2,500 night.

Before the City issues a permit, the sign manufacturer must certify in writing that the brightness has been factory-preset to these limits and password-protected against end-user changes. The permit application must also list a contact person who can power off the display within 24 hours if the Inspection Department finds it has malfunctioned. Any nonconforming sign on the property must first be brought into compliance before a digital message permit issues.