The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners approved a staff‑initiated text amendment to the sign regulations of the county Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) at its Oct. 9 meeting, adopting changes staff described as a maintenance update to modernize, reorganize and align standards with recent court precedent.

Planning staff explained the amendment consolidates sign rules that are currently scattered across seven UDO articles, clarifies which signs require permits, separates manual changeable copy from electronic changeable‑copy (digital) signage, proposes daytime and reduced nighttime brightness limits for digital signs, and adds provisions addressing audio components if those technologies become more common. Rebecca (planning staff) summarized the changes and said the update “ensures provisions are content neutral.”

Rebecca told the board the edits are intended to be policy neutral and do not change maximum sign sizes, heights or permitted sign types in zoning districts; rather, the changes reorganize standards and update them to reflect legal constraints on regulating sign content. She said the planning board reviewed the amendment over several months and voted 6‑0 on Sept. 4 to recommend approval.

Under the proposed language, manual changeable copy would be allowed on any freestanding sign; electronic changeable‑copy signs would be allowed in commercial districts and for nonresidential uses along major corridors in unincorporated areas. The amendment would apply only to unincorporated New Hanover County (outside the City of Wilmington and the beach towns), per staff.

A commissioner moved to approve the amendment and a second was made; the board voted in favor and staff said the motion carried. No members of the public spoke in opposition during the hearing. Staff also noted that because this was a maintenance update rather than a policy overhaul, core dimensional standards such as maximum sign sizes and heights and corridor restrictions remain unchanged.

The board directed staff to provide the approved text and (upon request) a script for the public record. Planning staff said these edits intend to make sign rules easier to find and apply while aligning the code with state law and recent court decisions about content neutrality.