Sarasota County, FL Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Sec. 124-215(b) of the Sarasota County Unified Development Code governs off-site advertising signs, the billboard-style signs that advertise something other than the business on the property where they stand. Subsection (b)(3) draws a hard line along the county's interstate corridors: no advertisement, advertising sign or advertising structure may be constructed, erected, used, operated or maintained within 660 feet of the nearest edge of the right-of-way of any portion of the Interstate Highway System. That reach covers unincorporated land along I-75, including the Fruitville Road, Bee Ridge Road, Clark Road and River Road interchange areas.

Outside that 660-foot buffer, off-site signs remain tightly zoned. They may only go up in the CG (Commercial General) and CI (Commercial Intensive) districts, and only after the Planning and Development Services Department issues a Sign Permit under subsection (b)(1). The sign itself is capped at 75 square feet in area and 15 feet in height above unaltered grade, and the code specifically bars filling or berming a site to gain extra height. Off-site signs also need at least a 20-foot setback from any property line, must sit at least 5,000 feet from another off-site sign along the same right-of-way, and at least 1,000 feet from an off-site sign on an intersecting right-of-way.

Every new off-site sign must be built on a mono-pole or two-pole structure. A site that already carries a permitted on-site sign cannot also carry an off-site sign, and any off-site sign that no longer meets these standards becomes a nonconforming sign under Article 15 of the UDC rather than being grandfathered outright.