Wicomico County, MD Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

The Zoning Code's general sign regulations, found in Part 9 of Chapter 225, apply to every sign erected in the unincorporated county and flatly forbid motion. Wicomico County Code § 225-122A states that signs which revolve, flash, are animated or utilize movement or apparent movement to attract public attention are prohibited outright. A digital billboard's defining feature, cycling video, scrolling text or slide transitions, is exactly the kind of apparent movement this section bans, so no electronic message billboard can be lawfully erected anywhere outside Salisbury, Delmar, Fruitland, Hebron, Mardela Springs, Pittsville, Sharptown or Willards, which regulate signs under their own separate town codes.

Conventional, non-digital billboards are still allowed under § 225-126, which requires a sign permit from the Wicomico County Building Inspector and caps outdoor advertising structures at 300 square feet per face and 30 feet in height, with a setback of at least 100 feet from the property line facing a public road (or 150 feet from the road's center line, whichever is greater) and spacing of at least 2,000 feet between structures. Section 225-126B(6) further requires that where such a structure is lighted, it 'shall be indirectly illuminated', a standard a self-illuminating LED panel cannot meet. Structures built before the chapter's effective date that no longer conform are treated as legal nonconforming uses under § 225-126B(8), but that grandfathering never extends to a newly installed digital display. Planning, Zoning and Community Development administers the permit; the Board of Appeals hears any request for relief from these standards.