Richmond, VA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Richmond City Code § 30-503 prohibits off-premises signs and animated signs in every zoning district unless the code specifically permits them elsewhere. The only carve-out for an off-premises sign, the kind a digital billboard company would erect, sits in § 30-515(5), limited to the B-3 General Business District, requiring the structure to be oriented toward, visible from, and located within 660 feet of an interstate highway right-of-way. Within that narrow strip, the sign cannot exceed 700 square feet of area or 35 feet in height, no two billboard structures can stand less than 500 feet apart along the same side of the highway, and none can sit within 500 feet of an interchange, measured along the pavement edge from the ramp taper to the structure.

Separately, § 30-503(1) bans animated signs in all districts, and § 30-1220's definition of "sign, animated" catches any sign with a conspicuous and intermittent variation in illumination, message, or physical position, except a sign that revolves at six revolutions per minute or slower or changes its message no more than once every five seconds. That five-second threshold is the practical dividing line for a digital display: a billboard with static, slow-changing copy inside a B-3 corridor near an interstate can qualify as a lawful off-premises sign, while anything that flips faster is an animated sign banned everywhere in the City. 1 before the Commissioner of Buildings issues a permit.