Auburn, WA Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

ACC 18.56.030(I) lists signs unlawful to erect or place anywhere in the city 'except as otherwise authorized,' and subsection 13 names billboards specifically: 'Billboards.' The chapter defines a billboard at ACC 18.56.020(C) as 'a large outdoor advertising sign containing a message, commercial or otherwise, unrelated to the use or activity on the property on which the sign is located and/or to any use or activity in the immediate area,' customarily leased for commercial purposes, with faces ranging roughly 12 to 14 feet in height and 24 to 48 feet in width, the format most associated with freeway-facing advertising.

Because billboards fall under the outright prohibition rather than a district-specific size or height allowance, there is no zone in Auburn, including areas along SR 167 or SR 18, where a new billboard can be permitted through the standard sign permit process. The chapter separately prohibits several related freeway-adjacent tactics: rotating signs (I.12), signs attached to poles installed by governmental agencies or utility poles (I.10), and any sign constituting a traffic hazard by diverting driver attention through size, location, movement or illumination (I.8). Off-premises advertising is not banned entirely, however; ACC 18.56.040(E)(5) allows a narrower category of off-premises signs in the C-2 zone up to 20 feet in height and within 750 feet of the advertised business, which is a distinctly different, smaller instrument than a billboard.