York County, SC Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Section 155.938(A) applies countywide across the unincorporated area, including growth corridors like Lake Wylie and India Hook: "A person may not construct, install, operate, display, or use a new billboard." The code defines a billboard, at § 155.1301, as a permanent, off-premises sign or sign structure mounted on poles, an A-frame, or a multi-mast catwalk, so the ban covers digital billboard faces the same as static ones; nothing in the sign chapter carves out an exception for electronic message technology. Billboards already standing when the county adopted this part may continue as nonconforming uses, but § 155.938(B)(1) forbids enlarging, extending, relocating, or structurally reconstructing them, though a sign user may swap the copy on the face if the change does not increase area, height, projection, or features.

A billboard destroyed or damaged beyond 50% of its appraised value cannot be rebuilt at all under § 155.938(B)(3); damage at or under that threshold can be repaired, but only within 90 days or the owner must remove the structure per § 155.938(B)(4). The Building Official may order repairs to an unsafe billboard under Chapter 150's adopted International Existing Building Code. For an illegal new billboard, the Zoning Administrator sends the recorded property owner written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, under § 155.938(D)(1), giving 30 days to correct the violation or remove the sign; if the owner misses that deadline, the county may remove the billboard itself and bill the cost to the owner.

Separately, on-premises signs (not billboards) may include electronic reader boards outside residential districts and the Lake Wylie Overlay Sign District, but those displays cannot change message more than once per minute, may not scroll, animate, or fade, must show a black background, and are capped at 5,000 nits by day and 500 nits from dusk to dawn under § 155.934(D)(3).