Putnam County, FL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 45-713(e) of the Putnam County Code is the provision that actually controls digital and electronic message displays, since the county's general sign article otherwise bans moving or changing sign faces under section 45-712(c). Rather than prohibiting digital copy outright, the county carves out a narrow allowance: a sign may carry lighted changeable copy, the term the code uses for an electronically or mechanically updated message area, but that changeable portion of the sign cannot exceed 15 square feet regardless of how large the rest of the sign face is.

The dwell time between message changes has a floor as well, at least ten seconds must pass before the copy changes again, except for scrolling text, which is treated separately from a static message swap. The county also limits how many such displays a single property can host: no more than one illuminated changeable-copy sign is allowed per parcel, so a business cannot spread digital copy across several ground or building signs on the same lot. There is a specific accommodation for perpendicular signs, those installed roughly 90 degrees to the roadway with two faces meeting at one end and less than 30 degrees apart at the other; each face of a perpendicular sign may independently carry up to the 15-square-foot allotment of changeable copy.

Because billboards are signs regulated under this same article, and section 45-732(5) requires billboards to meet the design standards of article VIII, division 3, an off-premises billboard's electronic message panel is bound by the same 15-square-foot cap and ten-second minimum hold time as any on-premises digital sign in the county.