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

Section 45-732 of the Putnam County Code is the billboard-specific provision inside the sign article's allowed-signs division, and it layers two separate location tests on top of each other before a billboard can be permitted. The first test is zoning: billboards are only allowed on property zoned C-2, C-3, C-4, IL or IH, or on a PUD site specifically designated for commercial or industrial development, and the zoning categories used have to sit in an area the county's future land use map designates urban service, urban reserve, commercial, industrial, or rural center.

The second test is roadway orientation, the provision the freeway-facing rule turns on: a billboard may be erected only within 660 feet of a federal road, a state road, or a county road that the county's comprehensive plan designates as a collector or arterial. A billboard sited more than 660 feet from a qualifying road, or facing only a local road, does not meet section 45-732(2) even if the zoning and every other design standard in the section is satisfied. The section caps the total inventory too: the number of billboards countywide cannot exceed the number legally permitted on the code's effective date, though an owner who removes a nonconforming billboard within three years can earn two new conforming billboards in exchange.

Beyond location, a permitted billboard must sit at least 1,500 feet from another billboard on the same side of the highway, meet a 100-foot setback from any residentially zoned property, and clear a minimum 35-foot height limit that can rise to 45 feet only through a section 45-697 variance.