Owensboro, KY Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Owensboro's electronic changeable copy rules in the zoning ordinance's Article IX, Sections 9-4(a)(5) and 9-5(a)(5), only apply to on-premises business, institution and farm signs in business, industrial and professional zones; they say nothing about billboards, because billboards are off-premises signs and Owensboro's own Municipal Code forecloses them before the zoning ordinance's technology rules ever come into play. Section 18-10, adopted by Ordinance No. 53-89 in 1989 and amended by Ordinance No. 28-2007, declares that the number of commercial billboards in the city is 'excessive and unduly distracting to motorists and pedestrians' and bans 'all new outdoor, commercial off-premises signs' within the corporate limits, with no permit to be issued for any such sign.

A digital or electronic billboard, whether static-image or full-motion, is still an off-premises commercial sign under that definition and gets no separate carve-out for its display technology. The ban does not reach signs already lawfully in place when the ordinance took effect, or ones that are altered, replaced or repaired without being enlarged, and it does not apply to noncommercial messages or to consolidated shopping center signs meeting the criteria in zoning ordinance Section 9-4(g). Any new off-premises sign built in violation is declared a public nuisance that the city may remove at the owner's expense, and Section 18-10(e) fines the responsible party $50 to $100 for every day the violation continues, separate from the general Zoning Ordinance penalty in Section 5.6 that governs other Article IX sign violations.