Pawtucket, RI Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Pawtucket allows electronic messaging centers, computer-programmable signs that change their message electronically, only as a special use under Zoning Ordinance § 410-60W, and only one per site. Every displayed message must hold for at least 60 seconds, and the sign cannot show animation, moving video, scrolling text or pictures; it must use a uniform background with no more than two colors on screen at once, aimed at keeping the display legible rather than distracting. Brightness is capped by time of day: a maximum of 5,000 nits during daylight hours and 1,000 nits at night, night being defined as sunset to sunrise under National Weather Service determinations.

Siting is tightly restricted. EMCs are banned outright in local Historic Districts, National Register Historic Districts and the Mill Building Reuse Overlay District, and cannot be located within 200 feet of a Residential Zone, a Riverfront Zone, or a local or National Register Historic District, with the applicant required to submit a site plan, not just an assessor's map, identifying every parcel within that 200-foot radius. m. For sign-area accounting purposes, each square foot of an EMC counts as two square feet toward the building's total permitted sign area. Off-premises EMCs, ones advertising a business not located on the same site, are treated as billboards and are not permitted anywhere in the city.