Bensalem, PA Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Bensalem Township's zoning ordinance treats billboards as a special overlay use rather than an ordinary sign. Section 232-353(a) permits an off-premises outdoor advertising sign in any zoning district, by conditional use approval from Township Council, only when its bottom edge sits within 100 feet of the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-276) or I-95 and the panel is primarily visible from the highway's main travel lanes. An applicant who removes an existing off-premises sign elsewhere in the Township earns by-right approval at one of those Turnpike- or I-95-adjacent locations instead of conditional use review.

Section 232-354 layers on the operating conditions: a 25-foot setback from any public right-of-way, lot line, or building; a minimum 1,000-foot gap from the next billboard along the same travel lane; a 500-foot buffer from any residential lot; and a 250-foot buffer from a church, school, park, or playground. Panels are capped at 672 square feet per side and 25 feet in height, measured to the sign's lowest point from the highway grade. Owners must also plant a landscaping screen, evergreens plus flowering trees and shrubs, around the sign base, or fund equivalent plantings through the Township Shade Tree Commission.

Content is barred from displaying anything obscene under 18 Pa.C.S.A. Section 5903. If a billboard falls out of repair, the Township gives the owner 60 days' written notice by certified mail before removing it and filing a lien for the cost. Digital billboard faces are allowed only by trading out an existing non-digital face elsewhere in the Township.