Snohomish County, WA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

080(8), the digital billboard subsection of the county's billboard code. Subsection (d) sets the ceiling for daylight hours at 5,000 nits measured from the sign face at its maximum brightness, and subsection (e) drops that ceiling to 500 nits, one-tenth of the daytime level, for the period between sunset and sunrise, with those times pegged to National Weather Service data rather than a fixed clock. , regardless of the brightness dimming already required. The section also sets a siting buffer independent of brightness: a digital billboard cannot be placed closer than 300 feet from any residential unit that exists on the date the sign is installed, measured from the edge of the sign to the closest wall of the residence, unless that residence is itself a nonconforming unit.

010(6), which requires artificial lighting on signs generally to be hooded or shaded so it does not glare onto surrounding property, though that general hooding rule explicitly excludes digital signs, which are instead governed by the nits-based standards here. A malfunctioning display that cannot meet the ambient dimming requirement must default to off or full black under subsection (i) rather than run at an uncontrolled brightness.