Spokane County, WA Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

Chapter 14.800 of the Spokane County Code never mentions garage sales, yard sales or estate sales, so a hand-lettered sale sign is tested against the general sign rules. Chapter 14.300 defines a sign as a visual communication device, visible from a right-of-way, that promotes the sale of products, goods, services or events. Section 14.804.020(1) requires a building permit for an on-premises sign, and section 14.804.040 exempts temporary banners and temporary signs "as permitted herein," real estate signs, incidental signs, political signs, bench signs and contractor signs. An incidental sign is a nonelectric information sign of four square feet or less about goods or services available on the premises, meant for the convenience of the public while on the premises.

Section 14.804.050 sets the size and type limits. It prohibits portable signs exceeding nine square feet, all portable reader boards, all portable electric signs, flashing signs, and signs attached to a vehicle or trailer parked on public or private property. A portable sign is any sign that is not permanently affixed and is designed for or capable of being moved, which describes a sandwich board or a sign on stakes. Item 11 prohibits off-premises signs in all zones unless otherwise specifically permitted. The one directional allowance in section 14.804.060 belongs to real estate: open house signs on each access street, unlit, five square feet, three feet high, and used only while the property is open for inspection. No parallel allowance names garage sales. Temporary banners, flags and pennants are a separate category under section 14.804.060(4): the division permits them for on-premises use only, for thirty days per quarter with one thirty-day renewal.

Placement rules come next. Section 14.804.110 requires every sign to leave vehicular and pedestrian accessibility and sight distance clear, to conform to the chapter 14.812 clear view triangle, and to stay out of, and not overhang, any public right-of-way. Any part of a sign between three and seven feet above grade must sit at least ten feet back from the right-of-way unless no sight-distance impact can be demonstrated. Under section 3.13.040, a sign that the county engineer or public works director determines interferes with pedestrian or vehicular movement shall be removed immediately. In residential zones, section 14.804.070 lists nameplates of five square feet or less and four feet high, plus wall and freestanding signs by use, and no sale sign.