Troy, NY Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

The City Council of Troy, New York, regulates billboards under the name outdoor advertising signs in § 285-109 of the zoning chapter. Subsection A says outdoor advertising signs may be erected or maintained only in accordance with that section. Paragraph E(8) then shuts the door on new ones: no advertising sign, off-premises sign or billboard, as defined in § 285-93, shall be newly constructed on or after the effective date of the paragraph, which the code records as added 5-6-2004 by L.L. No. 3-2004.

The sign article does not print a separate category for digital or electronic billboards. What it prints is the new-construction ban, a nonconforming-sign clause and a lighting section. Under subsection D, an outdoor advertising sign in existence on the effective date of the chapter that does not comply with the chapter can continue in existence and can be rebuilt so long as the size is not increased beyond existing size or square feet per facing, whichever is less. Lighting is handled in subsection I, which prohibits any outdoor advertising sign that contains, includes or is illuminated by any flashing, intermittent or moving light or lights. The general rule in § 285-97L(1) adds that no sign can flash, have intermittent lighting, have red, green or amber illumination, or display a moving copy or message that would cause motorist confusion.

The definition also draws a line. An outdoor advertising sign is one directing attention to a business, service or activity not usually conducted, or a product not usually offered or sold, on the premises, and the definition excludes signs with a significant portion of their face area devoted to public service information such as time, date, temperature or weather.

The dimensional standards remain printed for signs that conform. Permitted zones are B-2, B-3, B-5 and IND (subsection C). A single face is capped at 300 square feet in the B-5 and IND Zones and 72 square feet in the other permitted zones, with cutouts up to 20% added (F). Height tops out at 50 feet in B-5 and IND and 40 feet elsewhere (G). Signs stand at least 150 feet apart on the same side of the same street (H), at least 150 feet from the listed parks, schools, churches, courthouses, municipal buildings and public museums on the same street (E(1)), and behind a 15 foot front yard setback, or 25 feet on the side and rear where the lot abuts a residential district (E(2)).