Port Orange, FL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Port Orange runs a two-layer scheme. Section 5(a) of the sign code, its list of prohibited signs, flatly bans 'Billboards' along with 'Animated signs' and 'Emitting sign,' among more than a dozen other prohibited types, with no size or technology exception, so a large off-site advertising sign cannot be permitted anywhere in the city regardless of its electronics. Separately, 'digital sign' is its own defined term, and the code's definition of 'animated sign' explicitly excludes digital signs from that category, meaning a permitted on-site digital display, like an LED message area integrated into a monument sign, is instead regulated by Section 9(a)'s performance standards: each message must hold for at least 10 seconds, transitions can only use dissolve or fade capped at one second, no scrolling, flashing or varying intensity is allowed during the static display period, brightness is capped at 0.3 foot-candles above ambient light measured with a two-step foot-candle (Lux) meter test, the manufacturer must certify in writing that the brightness is factory-preset and password-protected before a permit is issued, the sign must auto-dim for nighttime viewing, pixel pitch cannot exceed 8 millimeters, and the sign must default to going dark or freezing on one static display if it malfunctions.

These digital-sign engineering rules only apply to the limited, integrated on-site signage that Chapter 15's zoning-district tables actually allow; the outright billboard ban in Section 5(a) means none of this brightness or pixel-pitch compliance ever legalizes a freestanding, off-site advertising billboard, digital or not.