Tigard, OR Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Tigard's sign code, chapter 18.435 of the Tigard Municipal Code, draws a hard line between billboards and electronic signs. Section 18.435.070.I states that billboards are prohibited, and § 18.435.015 defines a billboard as a sign of at least 500 square feet on which space is leased or rented. A digital billboard therefore has no path to approval in the City of Tigard. The only digital sign the chapter recognizes is the electronic information sign, defined as a sign with lighted changeable copy or message that changes at set intervals, each lasting more than two seconds, by electronic process or remote control.

Section 18.435.090.C limits where those signs go. They are allowed only in the COM, MUC, TMU and MU-CBD zones, and at schools that front an arterial street, provided the sign is a minimum of 200 feet from an abutting residential use and is oriented to the arterial street. In the TMU and MU-CBD zones the standards in § 18.435.130.F.1.a apply, which limit a reader-board or electronic component on a wall or projecting sign to 50 square feet or 50 percent of that sign's area, whichever is less. Maximum height and area in the other zones come from § 18.435.130.

An electronic information sign can substitute for one freestanding sign or one wall sign, except in the MUC zone, where it can substitute only for one freestanding sign. It is not allowed to replace or supplement a billboard, a freeway-oriented sign or any other sign type. One electronic information sign is allowed per premises. It cannot be mounted on a nonconforming sign or sign structure unless the sign and structure are brought into compliance with the whole title.

Display behavior is regulated too. Traveling light patterns (the chaser effect) are prohibited, and messages and animation must be displayed at intervals of greater than two seconds. Section 18.435.070.G separately prohibits flashing signs of any kind, and § 18.435.070.F prohibits revolving, rotating or moving signs. Temporary signs cannot carry a reader-board or electronic information component (§ 18.435.100.C.6). A permanent sign needs a sign permit under § 18.435.020.B.1, processed as a Type I procedure under § 18.435.030, and the approval is effective for 90 days under § 18.435.040.A.