Amarillo, TX Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Section 4-2-13 opens by prohibiting all new off-premise signs, the sign code's term for billboards advertising a business or product not located on the sign's own lot, then carves out one exception in subsection (A): signs adjacent to Interstate 40 (excluding the Business I-40 loop through downtown), Interstate 27, State Highway 60, and Highways 87 and 287 (the Dumas Highway), but not along the SH 60/87/287 segments between Southeast 12th Avenue and Northeast 1st Avenue. Any billboard erected in that qualifying corridor answers to the Texas Department of Transportation's outdoor advertising program rather than the City's sign permit process, because Section 4-2-13(A) defers directly to TxDOT regulation.

902 to regulate off-premise signs beyond its limits. A nonconforming billboard erected before the current rule took effect, or one caught by annexation into a newly restricted area, falls under the separate nonconforming off-premise sign rules in Section 4-2-14, which bar upgrades such as adding lighting, enlarging the face, or converting to an electronic message center, and require removal or compliance within thirty days of a violative alteration. Amarillo's freeway network makes the corridor list significant: I-40 and I-27 cross through the heart of the city, so most legal new billboards concentrate along those two interstates rather than the surface arterials that carry the bulk of in-town traffic.