Bellevue, WA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

107, LED readerboards are allowed in any land use district in Bellevue only when used as a noncommercial public service sign, not for commercial advertising or a rotating tenant board. Outside downtown, the sign must meet strict design criteria: the text can only roll onto the screen rather than flash, and no chasing, scintillating, rotating or blinking lights are permitted at all. The graphics are limited to text only, with zero animation of any kind allowed. Building-mounted LED signs on performing arts centers cannot be worked into any artwork proposal for the building facade, and the sign structure itself must architecturally complement the building it serves.

The message-change frequency is capped hard: text cannot change more than once every eight hours. , except when the premises are hosting a noncommercial public service event running later, in which case the sign goes dark when that event ends. 440, which permits faster message changes, once every four minutes. Any LED sign permitted under either exception must still comply with every other sign code standard for its land use district, including the underlying district's size and height limits. A private business cannot install a commercial digital billboard anywhere in Bellevue under current code; the two paths above are the only ways an electronic message sign gets approved.