Lakewood, WA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

080(D), since the total number of billboard faces citywide is capped at the number that existed on the City's 1996 incorporation date and cannot grow except through annexation of areas that already contained billboards. Within that framework, subsection (D)(6) bars billboards from being altered or modified at all except in narrow, enumerated circumstances, and lighting is one of them. Under (D)(6)(c), a billboard already fitted with flashing, intermittent, or moving lights cannot be modified except to remove or reduce those lights, meaning owners may only move toward compliance, never add more dynamic lighting.

Going forward, a billboard is barred from carrying any illumination at all unless it is effectively shielded so the light is directed onto the billboard face itself and no beams or rays reach any part of the traveled ways of an adjoining highway or airway, or unless the light is of such low intensity that it does not cause glare or impair a driver's vision. The City retains sole discretion to determine that a billboard's illumination is excessive, and once it does, the sign must be modified according to the City's instructions.

095, so a billboard's fixtures must also satisfy that broader lighting code. Ordinary maintenance and copy changes that do not alter size, shape, orientation, height or location remain exempt from a zoning certification, though a building permit can still apply, and demolition of a billboard face requires a demolition permit, with removal required within 90 days of issuance.