Raleigh, NC Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

The DX Digital Signs standard defines its scope broadly, 'signs that use technologies such as LCD, LED and Projection to display content such as digital images, video, streaming media, and information', then flatly states digital signs are prohibited except for two narrow categories, both limited to Raleigh's DX- (downtown) zoning district. The first exception allows a digital wall sign up to 750 square feet, attached to a civic building that includes at least one place of public assembly with single-room seating for 10,000 or more people, a threshold that in practice limits this option to major arenas or convention-style venues.

The second exception allows a freestanding digital ground sign up to 100 square feet, on a supporting structure no taller than 20 feet, but only on a lot with either a civic building seating 2,100 or more in a single room, or an outdoor sports or entertainment facility seating 5,000 or more. Ordinary retail, restaurant, and office signage citywide cannot use digital display technology under this rule; DX digital signs also cannot function as changeable-copy signs subject to the general copy-size standards, and Sec. N specifically bars any strobe lighting effect, defined as flashes of bright light more than once per second.

Elsewhere in the sign code, flashing or animated signs are separately listed as a prohibited sign type under Sec. 15, reinforcing that Raleigh treats digital and illuminated-motion signage as an exception to the rule rather than the default. 3.