Navajo County, AZ Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Message hold time, roads under 45 mph
- 20 seconds minimum
- Message hold time, roads 45 mph+
- 15 seconds minimum
- Motion effects
- Flashing/fading/rolling all prohibited
- Lighting standard
- Must meet Article 18 dark-sky rules
- Governing section
- § 1705.7
Summary
Commercial and industrial properties in unincorporated Navajo County may run electronic message displays, but Section 1705.7 sets a minimum hold time for each message: twenty seconds next to slower roads, fifteen seconds next to roads posted forty-five miles per hour or faster, with no flashing, fading, or motion effects allowed.
7. Electronic Message Displays are permitted, subject to the following: a. Electronic messages adjacent to a roadway with a speed limit of less than forty-five (45) miles per hour shall have a minimum of twenty (20) seconds between message change. b. Electronic messages adjacent to a roadway with a speed limit of forty-five (45) miles per hour or greater shall have a minimum of fifteen (15) seconds between message change. c. Electronic messages shall not contain flashing, blinking, fading, rolling, shading, dissolving, or any other effect that gives the appearance of movement. d. LED displays and lighting shall conform with Navajo County lighting standards.
Full Breakdown
Section 1705 governs signs on Commercial and Industrial zoned properties, building on the smaller residential sign standards in Sections 1703 and 1704. Item 7 carves out a specific track for Electronic Message Displays, the changeable digital panels increasingly used on gas stations, shopping centers, and highway-facing businesses along I-40 and US-60 through the unincorporated county. The rule ties the minimum time between message changes to the posted speed limit of the adjacent road: on roads posted under forty-five miles per hour, each message must stay up at least twenty seconds; on roads posted at forty-five miles per hour or faster, the minimum drops to fifteen seconds because faster-moving drivers have less time to read a static message.
7(c) bans any effect that makes the message appear to move: no flashing, blinking, fading, rolling, shading, or dissolving transitions, so a sign must snap cleanly from one static message to the next rather than animate between them. 3. 1 still has to satisfy this separate timing and lighting layer before it is compliant.
Violations & Fines
A digital sign that changes messages faster than the timing floor, or that fades or scrolls in violation of Section 1705.7(c), is a sign-code violation the Director can pursue through Article 21: Code Enforcement Officers investigate under Section 2103, the Director refers uncured cases to the County Attorney's Office under Section 2105, and the Hearing Officer may assess civil penalties under A.R.S. §§ 11-815 and 11-866.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long must a digital sign hold each message in unincorporated Navajo County?
Can a digital billboard use a fade or scroll transition between messages?
Do digital signs have to follow the county's outdoor lighting rules too?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Navajo County
Compare Navajo County to another location·View the Arizona sign regulations overview
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