Springfield, OH Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Springfield treats an electronic billboard as a 'digital dynamic display sign' under its Sign Chapter, and Table 1119.08.1: Billboard Standards controls where one may go. Billboards of any kind, digital or static, are barred outright ('X') in every Residential and Public/Institutional district and in the C-DT downtown district; they are allowed only in the C-LC/C-HC commercial and I-LI/I-HI industrial districts, and even there a Conditional Use Permit ('C') is required for both Single-Color Digital and Multi-Color Digital billboard faces, on top of the base billboard permit.

Once permitted, § 1119.05(c) imposes strict operating limits that apply to every digital dynamic display sign in the city, billboard or not. A single-color digital sign must hold its message constant for at least 15 seconds before switching, cannot show continual motion, and must transition between static images instantaneously with no special effects, meaning no left/right flow, no up/down scrolling, no flashing, and no cross-fades. Multi-color digital signs carry all of those same standards plus district-specific transition timing under Table 1119.05.2, and spacing/detection-distance rules under Table 1119.05.3 meant to keep two digital displays from ever being visible to a driver at once, along with siting restrictions keeping them away from intersections, interchanges, and other high-attention roadway features.

Both sign types must use automatic light-level controls that dim the display at night and in cloudy conditions, and both must be equipped to shut off immediately if they malfunction or are ordered off by the City. The Community Development Director enforces the Sign Chapter under § 1132.01; a violation is a Class B Civil Offense under § 1324.03(a)(6), with a $100 fine ($200 if delinquent) under § 1324.99.