Prescott Valley, AZ Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

The Prescott Valley Town Code does not use the phrase digital billboard. Its electronic display rules are written for electronic message centers, which section 13-09-020 defines as any sign using light emitting diodes (LEDs) capable of electronically changing its message and/or graphic presentation by remote or automatic means, including static, fade, dissolve, travel, or scrolling modes. The performance standards are in section 13-09-040(D).

Under 13-09-040(D), messages shall not change more frequently than every eight seconds. Fading and dissolving to move from one message to the next is permitted. Flashing, traveling, and animation are prohibited. Every electronic message center must have automatic dimming technology that adjusts brightness to ambient light, and the display cannot exceed 0.3 foot-candles above ambient light conditions. The measurement protocol starts at least 30 minutes after sunset: ambient light is measured 100 feet from the sign with a foot candle meter while the sign is off or showing all black copy, then again with a full white display. A difference of 0.3 foot-candles or less means the brightness is properly adjusted. On installation the permittee gives the Town a certificate from a lighting engineer or other professionally qualified entity.

The sign tables set where these displays go: one freestanding electronic message center per parcel at 50 square feet in the CN, CG, CI, PM, IG and IH districts, and one building-mounted electronic message center per building. Signage placed on a second street side shall not include electronic message centers. Section 13-09-080(A) prohibits animated signs but exempts electronic message centers that otherwise comply with section 13-12-040 (lighting standards).

Billboards are a separate regime. Section 13-09-050 allows them only in the PM (Performance Manufacturing) zone, caps a face at 200 square feet in any single direction, and bars billboard illumination that is intermittent, flashing, scintillating, animated, or of varying intensity. The billboard section itself never mentions changeable electronic messages, so the eight-second interval and the 0.3 foot-candle cap appear in 13-09-040(D), not in 13-09-050.