Stratford, CT Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 6.11.11(10) is the operating standard for electronic signs, defined in Section 6.11.2 as a sign that changes its message or copy at intervals by digital, electronic, or mechanical processes. Illumination: there can be no safety hazards created by the sign's illumination effects on traffic patterns, traffic lights, or public safety. No sign can exceed 7,500 nits, and it must come with a manufacturer's certificate to that effect. Each sign needs a photocell sensor that adjusts brightness to ambient light and settings that reduce brightness to 10% or less of the maximum at night, again with a manufacturer certificate, plus a factory override to adjust nighttime brightness to less than 10% and a default design or message that displays if a malfunction occurs.

Operation: the message must be displayed for at least 10 seconds, must be static, and the change from one static display to the next must be instantaneous to the human eye without any transitional effects.

The last condition is the one that decides the billboard question: there shall be no off-premise advertising. Section 6.11.2 defines a commercial sign as one promoting something other than what is offered or conducted on the premises and states that commercial signs include billboards, and it defines an outdoor advertising sign as one that advertises goods, products or services not sold, manufactured, or distributed on the premises. A digital sign carrying that kind of copy does not qualify.

Section 6.11.3(3) separately lists electronic message signs among prohibited signs, excluding theater marquee signs and gasoline dealer price signs, along with flashing, revolving or animated signs of intermittent or varying light intensity. Section 6.11.3(9) prohibits commercial signs facing the Merritt Parkway. Any sign needs a permit from the Building Inspector after a zoning compliance report from the Office of Planning and Zoning (Section 6.11.12).