Lower Merion, PA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

The Zoning Code's sign standards table, Table 9.2, item J, defines an off-premises sign as one advertising a use not located on the premises where the sign sits, the classic billboard. Off-premises signs are capped at 675 square feet of sign area, 48 inches of copy height, and a height of 20 to 35 feet, and cannot be mounted to a building facade. Illumination is not allowed by right at all: it requires a special exception from the Zoning Hearing Board, and even then the code lists restrictions that rule out an electronic message board.

Illumination is barred within 500 feet of a residential district or residential use; any approved lighting must be external, shielded and mounted directly above the illuminated face, with the luminaire type, wattage and control method specified to prevent off-site glare; and no light source may emanate from behind, within, or on the face of the sign. Most directly for a digital display, § 155-9.4, Table 9.2.J(2)(f) prohibits rotating, flashing, pulsing, moving or oscillating light sources, lasers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), organic LEDs, beacons or strobe lighting on an off-premises sign outright.

Because a digital billboard is by definition an internally lit, changing LED display, this table effectively forecloses one in Lower Merion; the only illumination the Zoning Hearing Board can approve is static, externally shielded, top-mounted lighting on a conventional static billboard face.