Richland, WA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Richland's sign code defines "billboard" at RMC § 27.06.030 as a ground, wall, or roof sign erected or maintained to display outdoor advertising by pictorial or reading matter, and made available for rental to persons other than the sign's own owner or lessee, the classic off-premises advertising structure that would carry a digital or electronic display. RMC § 27.08.010(C) then lists 11 categories of signs prohibited in every zoning district in the city, "except where otherwise provided in this chapter," and item 8 on that list is simply "Billboards." No exception in Title 27 carves out digital or electronic billboards, so the citywide ban reaches any billboard structure regardless of whether its face is static print or a changing electronic display.

The code's aversion to changing digital displays on large freestanding signs shows up again outside the billboard ban: RMC § 27.08.040(B)(1)(f), which governs freestanding signs the city manager can approve near a business center, separately requires that such a sign "be nonilluminated or internally illuminated only and shall not include any electronic readerboards or flashing signs." A "readerboard" is defined at RMC § 27.06.095 as a sign with readily replaceable letters that can be changed at will, and a "sign, changing image" is defined at RMC § 27.06.120 as one that changes its message or background by electrical, kinetic, solar or mechanical energy.

Prohibited signs, including any billboard erected in defiance of the ban, are subject to removal and abatement by the city at the violator's expense under RMC § 27.12.030(C), separate from Chapter 27.12's civil-infraction penalty track.