Sign Surveys & Permitting in Philadelphia

L&I's sign permitting briefing gives the steps: go to Atlas, type the address in the search bar, and click the Zoning tab, where the base zoning district and any zoning overlays are listed. The City also publishes a Zoning Summary Generator and a page on finding location and zoning information.

The base district sets the table. Table 14-904-1 of the Zoning Code fixes permitted sign types, maximum number, maximum area, maximum height, and whether static or animated illumination is allowed, district by district. A commercial corridor and a residential block are not in the same conversation, and the gap is wider than most owners expect. L&I's briefing puts two example columns side by side:

CA-2

Wall, projecting, marquee, freestanding, and portable signs are all permitted types. Wall, projecting, and marquee area is set at 10 square feet per linear foot of ground floor frontage of the business or tenant the sign is associated with, and the height cap is the higher of the roof line or the parapet wall where one applies. Freestanding signs run to 150 square feet per face, up to four faces, at a maximum height of 40 feet, one per 15,000 square feet of lot area. Portable signs are held to 10 square feet and 5 feet in height, one per building frontage, with no illumination and no mechanical motion. Static illumination and mechanical motion are allowed on the other types. Digital signs and electronic message signs are allowed on wall signs and on freestanding signs, and not on projecting, marquee, or portable signs. An accessory digital news ticker is not permitted on any of them.

RSA-4, RSA-5, RSA-6, and RM-1

Only wall and freestanding signs are permitted types. For non-residential uses the maximum area is 15 square feet for each lot frontage. For home occupations a wall sign is limited to 1 square foot and a freestanding sign is prohibited, except as Section 14-604(10)(b)(.1) provides. A wall sign may not exceed the lower of the roof line or the second-floor windowsill, and a freestanding sign is capped at 7 feet and is prohibited in required setbacks. Static illumination is allowed. Animated illumination and mechanical motion are not.

Those two columns are the briefing's illustration, not the whole table. The Code table governs, and your district may be neither of them, which is exactly why the lookup comes first.

Some accessory sign controls apply in every district. L&I's briefing lists these among them:

• Wall signs shall not extend above the roof line or the second-floor windowsill of a structure, whichever is lower
• Projecting signs may extend a maximum of 4 feet from the facade
• Window signs are limited to the ground floor with some exceptions, to 20 percent of the glazed area, and to no more than two windows
• Directional signs are capped at 10 square feet and 7 feet in height, with logos limited to 10 percent of the area

Overlays sit on top, and overlays win

The briefing is explicit: overlay district regulations apply in combination with the underlying base district regulations; where an overlay and a district standard conflict, the overlay governs; where two overlays conflict, the stricter provision governs; and overlay provisions may require additional prerequisite approvals, permit different size signs, or prohibit certain sign types outright.

People often ask about a "special sign district." None of the City sign materials linked on this page use that phrase. What they document is the base district, the overlays layered over it, and a small number of named districts written into the Code. The City's zoning permit page for signs names the Market East Advertising District among the places that trigger Art Commission review, and L&I's briefing flags municipal property, the Market Street East Advertising District, and 1900 Market Street as unique cases on the non-accessory side. If your address sits in an overlay, the overlay is the document that matters, and that is why the zoning check happens before the design and not after it.

Accessory or non-accessory

L&I's briefing reduces this to one question: is the sign related to a business, activity, or service conducted on the property where the sign is located? Yes makes it an accessory sign. No makes it a non-accessory sign, which the City also calls outdoor advertising, or a billboard. Storefront signs, pylons, monuments, awnings, light boxes, and channel letters for the business on site are accessory signs.

The distinction is not academic. Non-accessory signs carry a far tighter set of rules, and the briefing lists them:

• Not permitted within 500 feet of another non-accessory sign
• Not permitted within 300 feet of any residentially zoned property
• Permitted areas are I-2, except within the area bounded by the Delaware Expressway, the Schuylkill Expressway, and Darien Street, plus I-3 and I-P
• Sign face area is 1,000 or 1,500 square feet depending on the width of the street the sign fronts, and height is measured from the road surface the sign is intended to be viewed from
• No more than two sign faces and no more than one support structure per lot
• Illumination is permitted but must be focused on the sign to prevent glare. Flashing or intermittent illumination, and mechanical or electronic changing messages, may not be erected within 500 feet of any Residential district, nor face a Residential district within 1,000 feet of the sign
• Revolving signs require special exception approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment
• For each non-accessory sign erected or converted to digital, two existing lawful non-accessory signs encompassing equal or greater sign area, other than a sign in the Market Street East Advertising District, must be removed, and no permit is issued before the removal has actually happened
• Non-accessory signs may only be converted to digital if they are within 660 feet of I-95 and I-76 and meant to be viewed from those roadways. A digital sign may not sit within 500 feet of residentially zoned property or face residentially zoned property within 1,000 feet, must show each display for at least 8 seconds, must dim automatically, and may carry only static graphics or text

The City's outdoor advertising signs FAQ fills in the paperwork. Zoning, building, and electrical permits are required to erect one, and all permits must be obtained before the sign is erected. Zoning and building permits are also required to remove one. To prove a removal that another permit depends on, the demolition must be physically completed, the permit closed out, and a Certificate of Approval obtained. A sign along, or within view from, a state-controlled highway runs in a fixed three-step order: L&I issues the zoning permit, PennDOT reviews for state and federal location requirements and issues an approval letter, and only then does L&I take the building and electrical applications. The FAQ states that L&I will not accept an application for either of those permits without the state approval letter, and that the same sequence applies to digital conversions and to replacement of 50 percent or more of the sign structure. Any company that owns an outdoor advertising sign needs an Outdoor Advertising License and must keep a current inventory of its signs with that license.

Storefront work does not touch any of that. It matters here because it explains why the first question on any application is which of the two kinds of sign you are actually building.

Where plans are required, the City states they must follow L&I's published plan requirements. The zoning permit page names the sheet to work from as the Zoning Permit for signs plan requirements. The building permit page states only that plans must follow plan requirements, without naming a sign-specific document, so the current list on L&I's resource page is the one to check before drawing.

For signs, L&I's briefing lists what the sheets have to carry under the 2018 International Building Code, Appendix H: a design capable of withstanding a 3-second 115 mph wind gust and the snow loads in Chapter 16 of the Building Code, the weight of the sign, anchoring with the wall construction and the anchor size, quantity, and spacing indicated, and foundation details. It also notes that a sign shall not obstruct exit signs or the windows and doors required for means of egress.

When the plans have to be sealed

The briefing lists the cases where a Pennsylvania-licensed design professional must seal the plans:

• Wall signs attached to an unbraced parapet or an EIFS wall
• Awnings more than 12 feet above grade, attached to an unbraced parapet, wider than 8 feet, or projecting more than 2 feet
• Every projecting sign with a projection into the public right-of-way, a private pedestrian footway, a private vehicular way, or an easement
• Freestanding signs over 12 feet in height, unless nothing about the existing support structure changes

That last clause is the difference between a reface on an existing pole and a new pylon, even when the two look identical from the road. It is also why the survey records what is already in the ground.

Anchorage, in the City's own words

L&I's wall sign application prints the installation rules on the form itself, which is a fair summary of what a reviewer expects to see detailed on any set of sign drawings:

• Signs attached to masonry, concrete, or steel shall be fastened by metal anchors, bolts, or approved expansion screws of sufficient size and anchorage to safely support the loads applied
• Wall signs on solid masonry, concrete, or stone shall use anchors, bolts, or expansion screws not less than 3/8 inch in diameter, embedded at least 5 inches
• Wood blocks shall not be used for anchorage, except for wall signs on buildings with walls of wood
• A wall sign shall not be supported by anchorages secured to an unbraced parapet wall

Those four lines are why the survey asks what is behind the finish. Stucco over cement board and solid brick take different anchors, and the drawings have to say which one the wall actually is.

The EZ Standard, and why it is worth designing toward

Philadelphia has a no-plans track, and it publishes the standard as two forms rather than as a description. The City states that plans are not required for installations complying with the EZ Standard for Sign Installation, that in person these applications are processed while you wait with a limit of three applications per ticket, and that online they are processed in 5 business days.

The EZ zoning sign standard applies to signs on existing buildings and only in CMX-1, CMX-2, CMX-2.5, CA-1, and CA-2. Signage must be limited to a single space and a single street frontage, limited to three signs in total counting existing ones, accessory to the approved use of the space, installed on the first floor and not extending above the roof line or the second-floor window sill whichever is lower, flat wall or awning type with copy only on the front face, and either non-illuminated or statically illuminated. Cabinet, freestanding, projecting, roof-mounted, directional, marquee, portable, window, and non-accessory signs are all excluded, as is flashing, intermittent, or animated illumination. A photograph of the storefront goes in with the application. Properties inside Center City overlay districts, the NCA Ridge Avenue control, or the CAO City Avenue control are not eligible.

That form also carries the area table the whole route turns on. CMX-1 allows 1 square foot of sign per linear foot of building frontage. CMX-2 and CMX-2.5 allow 3 square feet per linear foot of building frontage, or one 25 square foot sign per building frontage. CA-1 and CA-2 allow 10 square feet per linear foot of ground floor frontage of the business the sign belongs to. On corner properties the allowance along the longer frontage drops, to 0.5 square feet per linear foot in CMX-1 and 2.0 in CMX-2 and CMX-2.5.

The EZ building wall sign application adds the physical limits: mounted flat against the wall and projecting no more than 12 inches beyond the wall face, a maximum of three signs per application, the bottom edge no higher than 12 feet above finished grade and the top edge no higher than 15 feet, no more than 36 square feet per sign and no dimension over 12 feet, a total assembly weight of no more than 7 pounds per square foot including lighting and trim, capable of withstanding a 3-second 115 mph wind gust and the snow loads in Chapter 16 of the Building Code, and a total installation cost of no more than $25,000. The form states plainly that it may not be used for historic buildings, and that if any of those conditions are exceeded, drawings must be submitted and the seal and signature of a Pennsylvania-licensed professional engineer may be required.

Read that list as a design brief. A flat, wall-mounted, statically lit sign on a commercial corridor storefront can often be drawn to land inside it. A cabinet or a blade sign cannot, and there is no value in discovering that after the design is signed off.

Nothing on this page about Philadelphia carries across the city line. Bensalem is not Abington, and neither one is Cherry Hill. Townships in Bucks and Montgomery County and municipalities across South Jersey each adopt their own sign ordinance: their own size limits, their own height caps, their own rules on electronic message boards and illumination, and in some places a review board of their own.

Every figure on this page comes from a City of Philadelphia document and applies inside the city only. None of it is a guide to a suburban or South Jersey address, and we will not quote a suburban sign against Philadelphia's numbers.

We do not guess at the local rule either. We confirm the governing ordinance and the filing route with that municipality itself during the survey, and we tell you what it says before the design is finished.

This is also why permitting belongs inside the sign shop. When one company does the survey, the drawings, the application, and the installation, nothing gets lost in a handoff. If a reviewer wants a change, the people who drew the sign revise it and the shop builds the revision. No finger-pointing between your designer, your fabricator, and an expediter you never met.