Kent, WA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

KCC 15.06.040(S) governs off-premises signs, the code's term for billboards that advertise a business not located on the same site. Subsection (S)(7) prohibits electronic video displays similar to or otherwise depicting a television screen on any off-premises sign, so LED or LCD digital billboard faces are not permitted anywhere in the city, including in the industrial zones where static billboards are otherwise allowed. The only moving element the code tolerates on a billboard is a tri-vision panel, the rotating slat technology used for changing print ads, and only on structures already listed on the city's official off-premises sign inventory, subject to KCC 15.06.030(E).

The inventory itself is capped: the city will not authorize more off-premises sign structures than existed on March 5, 2000, the effective date of the section, and any repair, alteration, or relocation of an existing billboard requires the owner to first supply the city with installation and repair history. New billboards are confined to the I1, I2, and I3 industrial zoning districts; any structure standing outside those zones is treated as a legal nonconforming sign that can only be relocated into an I1, I2, or I3 district. Physical standards for surviving billboards are exacting: a maximum of 300 square feet per sign face, a 35-foot height ceiling, placement at least 300 feet from any intersection, and no more than four sign structures per 1,000 lineal feet of frontage. Altering a billboard's size, shape, orientation, height, or location requires a building permit, though ordinary maintenance and copy replacement do not.