The two main topics that will be discussed at City Council on Tuesday are the Diversity Advantage Plan 2035 and the Sign Code. This is a very early conversation about the Sign Code, but we can already see quite a few survey responses that give a sense of what the community would like to see included. It is on the Council agenda as an informational study session presentation.
You can see that the proposed code is just a barebones outline right now, but there is expected to be a draft in Q1 2026. There are many possibilities for structuring the code to respond to the feedback in the survey; see below for some I’ve brainstormed, and please add your own.
I’m emailing my list to Council and the planner in charge of this project, who will be presenting on Tuesday night and whose contact info is listed at the project webpage. If you’d like to talk about this or any other subject that will be coming before City Council in the next 60 days, you’ll be prioritized during the 30 minutes for Oral Communications at the beginning of each Council meeting (sign up for Oral Communications at noon on the day of the meeting).
Allow signs that are up to 12×18” or 220 in^2 unless specifically authorized elsewhere in the code, and also allow signs to be 18 x 24” if they have a date on them and are posted no more than two weeks before and removed by one week after that date.
This would allow longer-term candidate and marketing signs that are the size of Claudia Balducci’s, Reality Break Escapes, Bellevue Pilates, little realtor signs, and the smaller new Heezy Hauler signs.
An allowance for larger dated signs posted for a limited duration would give more space for community events and sales.
You could also/alternatively create an allowable size based on the speed limit of the adjacent road, which would acknowledge the sight-distance concerns.
Could make a rule that signs are only allowed on the NE corner of any intersection, just to take things down a notch.
Could say that signs must be within 10’ of a marked or unmarked crosswalk to encourage safer sign placement.
Could require signs to register contact information with the city in case there are removal requests, etc. if this list is visible on the city’s website, residents could remove unregistered signs.
Could define a summer camp and Christmas light installation season, etc., unless otherwise specified by the presence of a date on the sign.
Since signs may not be clean for recycling when retrieved, could encourage a compostable option.
Seattle Christmas Lights has been terrible for putting signs in front of peoples homes, though these appear to be in the ROW and therefore allowed under current code. I would disallow signs along the frontage of a lot where the driveway is (unless there is a sidewalk between the sign and the house), since there is implied endorsement, and people knock the signs down but don’t seem to know what to do with them.
Ensure one-stop community awareness of rules – link to part of RCW that mentions that signs on poles is a misdemeanor.
Could create community posting bulletin boards with a little roof at the entrance to some parks, so ads can be paper flyers instead of plastic things, and say any plastic/metal signs within 200’ of such a bulletin board are subject to removal. I particularly don’t like uncovered metal legs sticking up at toddler eye-level near playgrounds, and I think we’d have more participation in community events if people knew about them. Would be nice for the no dogs signage to be on a wooden stake for safety.
Pinnacle North is supposed to include a 28.5×27.5’ illuminated media wall, and it would be nice for the sign code to speak to “art” like that (that exceeds a certain number of total lumens visible from any direction) with a “night-mode” requirement after 10pm and alternative means of pedestrian path illumination.
Could maybe allow roof signs based on highest point of lot elevation or up to 5’ below the eaves to allow visibility from uphill, but wouldn’t want to proceed on this without a LOT of visual examples. Maybe Bel-Red would be a place to experiment with a looser sign code that encourages a more artistic approach, and base it on sqft of surface area to allow cutout outlines, with some max on total ilumination intensity after 10pm.
Specify a minimum unobstructed sidewalk width for sandwich board signs, you can get similar visibility with a sign that is supported by posts on a flat metal base that might be able to go closer to the curb.
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