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

Worcester County Code § ZS 1-324(d)(3) says no new billboards shall be erected, which closes the door on any new digital billboard in unincorporated Worcester County. Legally existing billboards can remain and be periodically maintained as permitted nonconforming structures and uses, and under (d)(4)A the Board of Zoning Appeals has no authority to grant a special exception for the reconstruction, expansion, relocation or structural alteration of an existing billboard. Existing billboards are also capped at two hundred square feet of copy area per facing and twenty-five feet overall height under (d)(4)B.

Where a billboard or off-premises advertising structure is destroyed by the forces of nature, subsection (d)(5) allows reconstruction in accordance with § ZS 1-122(d)(6), limited to materials generally in kind with the original, and (d)(5)B provides that electronic messaging components shall be strictly prohibited. The code's electronic messaging definitions cover electronic changeable copy signs, electronic graphic display signs and video display signs. Subsection (e) applies its standards to all signs employing electronic messaging. Under (e)(2), the display cannot blink, flash, rotate, scroll or change in illumination intensity except when switching to another message; for advertising signs the display cannot change at intervals less than eight seconds; the transition cannot last more than two seconds; and the sign needs a default mechanism that freezes the image on malfunction.

Audio speakers and pyrotechnics are prohibited, and only one electronic messaging sign is allowed per parcel or lot. Brightness limits sit in the same subsection and are covered on the billboard lighting page. The text read does not authorize a digital face on a billboard; the only billboard-specific electronic language is the prohibition in (d)(5)B. Ocean City, Berlin, Snow Hill and Pocomoke City have their own sign codes.