Bellingham, WA Sign Regulations: Window Signs (2026)

Barkley Village, Bellingham's mixed-use urban village along Barkley Boulevard, has its own signage chapter separate from the citywide standards in BMC 20.12.040. Subsection (A) states 'All signage in Barkley Village shall comply with the provisions herein.' Subsection (B) exempts four categories: government traffic signs, government wayfinding signs consistent with the Barkley Village subarea plan, tenant panel and directory signs located within a recessed entry, and, as (B)(4) states, 'Interior signs that are more than 12 inches inside a window.' Read against subsection (A), any sign or display placed within 12 inches of the interior glass line is not exempt and counts as a regulated sign subject to the chapter's area and design standards, the same treatment codes typically apply to true 'window signs.' The chapter's temporary and real estate provisions sit in subsection (C): paragraph (9) caps 'Temporary building signs' at 'not exceed[ing] 32 square feet,' and paragraph (10) limits real estate signs to 'one sign per street frontage,' requires them to be 'unlighted,' and caps them at '32 square feet.' These sit alongside Barkley's other numeric standards in the same subsection, including a 32-square-foot building-identification cap per facade, a 60-square-foot, six-foot-tall monument sign per development site, and a 100-square-foot cap on building-mounted tenant signage (50 square feet per elevation, per tenant).

Off-premises, pole and inflatable signs are prohibited outright under (C)(1), and existing nonconforming signs in Barkley Village may continue and be repaired under BMC 20.14.040 per (C)(11).