Salinas, CA Sign Regulations: Window Signs (2026)

Sec. 580(q) treats window signs as exempt from the sign permit requirement, but only up to a point: coverage cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the visible area of the window, and the exemption applies solely within the C, PS, MU, NU (VC), and I zoning districts. The companion rule in Sec. 590(g), the division's prohibited-signs list, makes the twenty-five-percent line a hard ceiling rather than just a permit trigger: any window sign that exceeds twenty-five percent of the visible window glass panel area is a prohibited sign citywide, not merely one that needs a permit.

Read together, the two sections mean a retailer or restaurant can cover up to a quarter of its storefront glass with paper, vinyl, paint, or posted signage without pulling a permit, but crossing that line puts the business in violation regardless of what permit it holds, because the city has flatly barred window coverage beyond the twenty-five-percent threshold. The measurement runs against the visible glass panel area of the window itself, not the storefront or building facade as a whole, so businesses with multiple window panels calculate the limit panel by panel.

The rule sits within Article V, Division 3 of the zoning code, the same division that regulates wall signs, freestanding signs, and other on-site sign types, and window signage counted toward a site's maximum building sign area is addressed separately under the sign area tables in Sec. 620.