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

York County's zoning ordinance defines an electronic message center, or EMC, in Sec. 24.1-701 as any sign using computer-generated or electronic means, LEDs, LCD, plasma, or rotating slats, to change its image or message, excluding simple time/temperature or fuel-price displays. Sec. 24.1-702(l) then locks down how those signs can operate. Free-standing EMCs that change more than once every 24 hours are allowed only on the freestanding signage otherwise permitted in the NB, LB, GB and EO zoning districts, and, elsewhere except the Yorktown Historic District (YVA) and Planned Development districts (PDR/PDMU), on properties used for education, institutional, or public and semi-public purposes.

Every message must hold for at least eight seconds with no scrolling, dissolving, fading, or simultaneous overlap between messages, and two EMC signs on adjoining properties must sit at least 50 feet apart. Building-mounted EMC signs are banned entirely. In residential districts, the background must go black with amber or orange text between dusk and dawn. Brightness is capped by comparing an illuminance reading with the sign off to one with it on: the difference cannot exceed 0.3 footcandle, measured at a distance tied to the sign's square footage under a table in the ordinance, and every EMC needs an automatic dimming sensor plus a manufacturer's written certification that the sensor works before the county's final inspection.

Off-premises signs with commercial content, meaning true billboards advertising something not on the same property, are separately banned everywhere in the county under Sec. 24.1-708(g), so digital billboard advertising on borrowed land is not an option regardless of how the on-site EMC rules are met.