Sussex County, DE Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

1, added October 11, 2016 by Ordinance No. 2470, regulates off-premises electronic message centers (digital billboards) separately from on-premises electronic signs. 5. They are flatly prohibited in every agricultural and residential district under B(2). Spacing is stricter than for static billboards: on roads with fewer than four travel lanes, digital billboards must sit at least 1,200 feet apart; on roads with four or more lanes, 2,500 feet, both measured edge to edge on the same side of the road, per B(3)-(4). Content rules under B(5) and C bar animation, flashing, streaming or real-time video, fading, dissolving, scrolling, spinning and rotating effects.

Each message must remain fixed for at least 10 seconds, and any change between messages must complete in one second or less with all elements changing simultaneously, per C(1)(a)-(b). Every digital billboard must include a default fail-safe that freezes, shuts down, or shows a black screen if a malfunction affects at least half the sign face, per C(1)(c), and must auto-dim via photocell, hardwire or software as ambient light changes, per C(1)(e)-(f). No audio or verbal announcements are permitted under C(1)(h), and no variance from any electronic message center regulation is allowed under C(2).