Porter County, IN Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Digital billboards and LED message boards have no path to approval under the Porter County Unified Development Ordinance. 49 SI-04(A)(1)(g)(iii), governing the Office and Institutional district, spells out the technology limit directly, manually placed text is allowed, electronically placed text or lighted text is not. 53 SI-08(A)(1)(h)(iii), so the electronic-text ban applies across every commercial, office, and industrial sign district in the county, not just one. 46 SI-01(E)(1)(c): signs are prohibited outright if they have blinking, flashing, or fluttering lights, or a changing light intensity, brightness or color, or give such illusion, language that reaches scrolling or color-cycling LED displays even outside the changeable-copy context.

Off-premises advertising signs, which the UDO's definitions chapter calls 'Sign, Outdoor Advertising' and notes are 'also called billboard or off-premise sign,' are not listed among the sign types permitted in any of the eight sign districts (SI-01 through SI-08), so a freestanding digital billboard advertising an off-site business has no permitted-use category to apply under in the first place. These standards carry the UDO's stated effective date of June 15, 2007, and should be confirmed against any amendment adopted since then.