Issaquah, WA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

LUC 18.612.050 is the City of Issaquah's prohibited-signs section. Its lead-in bars any person from erecting, altering, maintaining or relocating the listed signs, except when the sign chapter provides otherwise. A billboard is defined as a large permanent sign designed or used for high-visibility display of sign copy that is typically not associated with the property it stands on, and the section lists billboard signs as prohibited. Billboards are described there as larger than permitted pole signs.

Digital signs fall under the animated-sign entry: digital or moving signs are prohibited except approved reader boards in community facilities zones, or as specifically allowed by the chapter. The readerboard entry adds that electronic readerboard signs are prohibited except manual readerboards allowed with marquee signs, readerboards allowed as electronic community facility readerboards, and readerboards already in place that are legal nonconforming. Portable readerboards are a separate prohibited item. Any illuminated sign with blinking, flashing, intermittent or moving light is also barred, other than the time and temperature portion of a sign.

Where an electronic community facility readerboard is allowed, LUC 18.612.090(H) sets the operating conditions. The sign must be designed and placed so light and glare are not visible to adjacent residential properties, must dim during twilight and night hours, and must be turned off during night hours, defined as between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. The display can carry only static text or static graphics, with no video, animation or blinking, pulsing or strobe effects. Each message must stay up for at least 10 seconds, and a scrolling or wipe transition cannot take more than one second. The readerboard must be part of a monument sign or other primary sign, never a separate sign, and electronic readerboards are not allowed with privately owned community facilities signs.

Sign lighting in 18.612.180 adds that all lighting must be LED, white light cannot exceed a color temperature of 3,000K, and illuminated signs must be turned off during nonbusiness hours.