St. Clair County, IL Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Flashing/moving-light signs
- Banned countywide except public-service displays
- Residential buffer
- 75 feet before a sign may be illuminated
- AO-1 exception
- 5,000 nits day / 500 nits night, 15-sec static
- Sign permit
- Required before construction, Sec. 40-7-2(C)
- Penalty
- $50-$500 fine, each day a separate offense
- Enforcing office
- St. Clair County Zoning Administrator
Summary
St. Clair County bans flashing, intermittent or moving-light signs anywhere in the unincorporated county under Zoning Code Sec. 40-7-2(J), a rule that reaches digital billboards and electronic message boards. The only exception is public-service displays showing time, weather, date or temperature. Signs also can't be illuminated within 75 feet of a residential district, and blinding glare toward drivers is separately banned.
(J) Lighting. (1) No sign located nearer than seventy-five (75) feet to a residential zoning district shall be illuminated. (2) No sign may be erected which contains, includes, or is illuminated by any flashing, intermittent or moving light(s), except those giving public service information such as, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, time, weather, date, and temperature. (3) No sign may be erected or maintained which is not effectively shielded so as to prevent beams or rays of light from being directed at any portion of the traveled way or any interstate or primary highway or which is of such intensity of brilliance as to cause glare or to impair the vision of the driver of any motor vehicle.
Full Breakdown
The rule sits in Article VII, General Sign Regulations, and governs every sign "constructed, erected, painted, or otherwise established, moved, altered, or changed within the County's limits of jurisdiction" (Sec. 40-7-2(A)), meaning the unincorporated area outside Belleville, O'Fallon, Fairview Heights, Swansea, Cahokia Heights, Mascoutah and East St. Louis. Subsection (J) bars any sign illuminated by flashing, intermittent or moving lights, the standard that catches LED digital billboards and changeable-message boards, and it also forbids illuminating any sign within 75 feet of a residential zoning district and forbids glare bright enough to impair a driver's vision on any traveled way, interstate or primary highway.
A sign permit is required before any sign is built under Sec. 40-7-2(C), issued by the Zoning Administrator, except for identification signs, small real estate signs under 32 square feet, and governmental signs. There is one narrow carve-out: inside the Airport Overlay AO-1 District around Scott Air Force Base and MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, Sec. 40-4-120(C) separately permits electronic display signs capped at 5,000 nits in daylight and 500 nits from dusk to dawn, with each image held static for at least 15 seconds; that same section bans electronic signs outright in the adjoining AO-2 Safety Zone. Outside AO-1, the county-wide flashing-light ban in Sec. 40-7-2(J) controls, which forecloses a true video billboard almost everywhere else in unincorporated St. Clair County.
Violations & Fines
Violating any Zoning Code sign standard, including the flashing-light and setback rules of Sec. 40-7-2, is a Class B misdemeanor under Sec. 40-11-10, carrying a fine of not less than $50 and not more than $500 plus costs, and each day the sign stays up counts as a separate offense. The County can also pursue any other lawful action, such as a corrective-action order, to force compliance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I put up a digital billboard in unincorporated St. Clair County?
What counts as an exception to the flashing-light ban?
How close can an illuminated sign be to a house?
Do I need a permit before installing a digital sign?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in St. Clair County
Compare St. Clair County to another location·View the Illinois sign regulations overview
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