Mount Prospect, IL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 7.302H of the Mount Prospect Village Code permits changeable copy and electronic message center signs only when they are incorporated into a freestanding sign. The chapter's own definition of an electronic message center is any sign which uses changing lights to form a sign message or messages wherein the sequence of messages and the rate of change is electronically programmed. Off-premises advertising boards are not a sign type the chapter provides for, so a digital display has to fit inside this framework.

The sign face is limited to no more than six permanent items of information, and the changeable copy portion has to stay under forty percent of the total area of the sign face and sit below the permanent items. The message must be static, with no movement or appearance of movement during the static display period. Transitions are instant, in slideshow style, and cannot dissolve, fade, scroll or travel. A message cannot change more frequently than once every ten seconds. Every electronic message center sign needs a default mechanism that stops the messaging or freezes the image when the programming malfunctions.

Brightness is set in § 7.401G. In districts other than C-R, R-X, R-1 and R-A, an EMC sign cannot exceed 0.3 foot-candle over ambient lighting at a recommended distance equal to the square root of the sign area in square feet times 100, and it needs a sensor that dims it automatically. In C-R, R-X, R-1 and R-A the International Dark-Sky Association guidance IDA2019-01 is adopted: the sign shuts off no later than the earlier of thirty minutes after sunset or seven o'clock P.M., stays off until seven o'clock A.M., and cannot exceed 4 foot-candles in night mode at ten feet. Properties fronting major or minor arterial roads are exempt from that residential regime and meet the 0.3 foot-candle rule instead. Any sign needs a permit under § 7.501.