Southfield, MI Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Sec. 8.50A of the City Code lets a development install one electronic changeable copy sign in any zoning district that permits ground signage, but only as part of a garden ground or ground support sign, and only if no other ground sign, product price sign, or window signage already exists on the site. Outside residential districts the electronic portion is capped at 75 percent of the total sign area; in residential districts a garden ground sign carrying electronic copy tops out at 35 square feet and the electronic face at 60 percent of the sign.

Non-residential signs get a base height of 5 feet with a 5-foot setback, gaining one foot of height for every additional two feet of setback up to a 15-foot maximum. Electronic signs must sit at least 1,000 feet apart, waived across a divided roadway, stay 250 feet from Oakland County's top-50 SEMCOG crash intersections, and stay 50 feet from any signalized intersection's driving surface. In a residential district the sign must also sit at least 100 feet from any residential structure and front a major or high-speed thoroughfare.

Non-residential displays must go dark or static from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. unless the attached business stays open. Residential displays go to a black screen from 9:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Messages must hold for at least 15 seconds, change instantaneously with no fade effects, and never exceed 0.3 foot-candles above ambient light, measured with a lux meter at a distance equal to the square root of the sign area times 100. Every sign needs a default black-screen failsafe, a non-glare panel, a photocell dimmer, and manufacturer certification that brightness is password protected against tampering. The Department of Building and Safety Engineering can order immediate brightness adjustments on notice of noncompliance.