Orangeburg County, SC Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

2 lists 'Sign Characteristics' as a category separate from the sign's physical type, so the same freestanding or building sign can carry a Digital or Changeable Copy characteristic. The Digital row is marked 'P,' allowed only with prior permit approval, in the CG and BI columns, and 'N,' not allowed under any circumstances, in RS, RG, RO, CN, FA, RC and the institutional column. That mirrors the districts where billboards themselves are permitted, so an off-premises digital billboard is confined to the same CG and BI land.

The Changeable Copy row is more permissive: it is marked 'A,' allowed without a separate permit, in CN, CG, BI, FA, RC and INS, and 'N' only in the three residential and office districts, RS, RG and RO. 1's definitions article draws the legal line between the two: a 'Sign, Changeable Copy' is one whose characters or illustrations can be changed or rearranged without altering the sign face itself, but the moment its message changes more than eight times in a day, the Ordinance reclassifies it as an animated sign rather than a changeable-copy sign, pulling it out of the 'A' column and into the 'Animated' row, which needs a permit in CN, CG, BI, FA and RC and is banned outright in RS, RG, RO and INS. A sign whose only changing element is an electronic time-and-temperature display is carved out of both categories entirely.