Most tenants have more sign area than they think and measure it in the least favorable way possible. Both of those are fixable before anyone draws anything.
This guide covers wall signs specifically: the ones bolted to the face of your building. For the wider code, including freestanding signs, windows, vehicles, and temporary signage, start with our guide to Colorado Springs sign permits after Ordinance 26-01.
Everything below reflects the code adopted in February 2026, which replaced the previous sign regulations entirely. It is general information rather than legal advice, and the city is the final authority on any specific property.
Yes, With One Exception
Wall signs are a major sign type, and a permit is required before erecting any sign covered by the code unless it is specifically exempt. That includes channel letters, dimensional and flat cut lettering, panel signs, and canopy or awning signage.
The exception worth knowing
Face changes, repainting, re-lamping, and general maintenance of previously permitted signage are exempt, provided the sign is not raised, lowered, removed, or changed in a structural manner. So a new tenant putting new graphics on an existing permitted sign is often in a completely different and much faster process. APG produces replacement faces for existing monument signs when the existing structure is suitable, and that path is covered in our guide to sign face replacement.
Also exempt, and relevant to storefronts
- Signs displayed inside the building at least two feet back from exterior windows.
- A temporary cover over the sign location for up to 60 days while the permanent sign is fabricated.
- Signs oriented only to the property itself, set back more than 15 feet and not substantially visible from the right of way.
Window signs are their own minor type, needing no permit at 25 percent coverage or less, but they are prohibited above ground level. That trips up second floor offices constantly.
How Much Your Wall Allows
| Property use | Wall sign allowance | Canopy or awning |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial and industrial | 1.5 sq ft x elevation length | 0.5 sq ft x structure length |
| Commercial, set back over 200 ft from the right of way | 2 sq ft x elevation length | 0.5 sq ft x structure length |
| Office and civic | 1 sq ft x elevation length | 0.5 sq ft x structure length |
| Residential, 3-family and up | 50 sq ft per sign, max 2 | 0.5 sq ft x structure length |
Worked examples
- 40 foot commercial storefront: 40 x 1.5 = 60 square feet on that elevation.
- Same tenant, building set back 220 feet from the road: 40 x 2 = 80 square feet.
- 40 foot office suite: 40 x 1 = 40 square feet.
- 14 foot narrow tenant space: the minimum applies, so 25 square feet rather than 21.
Two more provisions worth knowing. You can split the allowance into multiple signs on the same elevation as long as the total stays within it. And buildings of five or more floors get a doubled allotment, with the additional signage placed at the fifth floor or higher.
Illuminated wall signs are prohibited for office and civic uses adjacent to residential. If your suite backs onto homes, plan on a non illuminated set from the start rather than finding out at review.
The Three-Shape Measurement Rule
This is the most useful thing in the entire sign code and almost nobody outside the trade knows it.
Sign area includes the entire face of the sign, its frame, artwork incidental to its decoration, and the spacing between letters and figures. It does not include the building's own bracing, structural elements, or decorative features.
Then comes the part that matters. When a sign consists only of letters, designs, or figures, meaning individual channel letters or flat cut letters with no background panel, the total area is calculated using no more than three standard geometric shapes, regardless of orientation, within which all the lettering, spacing, and artwork is inscribed. The permitted shapes are the square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval, and half-circle.
Three shapes, not one box around everything.
Why this changes your design
Take a two line layout: a logo mark on the left, the business name in large letters, and a service line beneath it in smaller type. Measured as one rectangle enclosing all of it, you are paying for a large block of empty wall between the elements. Measured as three shapes, one around the logo, one around the name, and one around the service line, the calculated area drops considerably, and the empty space between them no longer counts against you.
One detail with real effect on script and italic logos: proper font tails of lowercase letters are excluded from the calculation, but customized or extended tails are included. A designer who knows that will make different choices.
The practical upshot is that layouts get arranged into two or three tight groups rather than spread evenly across the elevation. It is a design decision driven by the measurement method, and it is where an experienced provider saves you either area or money.
Which Wall the Allocation Comes From
Allocation is based on the use of the property and the linear frontage of exterior walls, and signs must be placed on the frontage from which they draw their allocation unless a coordinated sign plan says otherwise.
In plain terms: you cannot bank the area from your long side wall and spend it on your short street-facing elevation. The area belongs to the wall it came from.
- Every wall gets a designated direction. That designation determines which elevation each sign draws from.
- Angled walls at 45 degrees are designated as one of two directions, and signage allocated to that wall can be placed anywhere on it.
- Corner tenants often have real options here, since two elevations each carry their own allowance.
Which wall you choose should come down to where customers first see the building, not which wall is easiest to reach. Walk or drive the approach from both directions before deciding.
Height, Roofs, and Projection
Four limits that reshape more designs than the area allowance does.
- No extending past the roof. A sign cannot extend past the pitch or peak of a pitched roof.
- Parapet limit. On a parapet or flat roof edge, no more than 50 percent of the sign's vertical height may extend above the roof line.
- Nothing on top of a flat roof. Signs attached directly on top of flat roofs are prohibited.
- Twelve inches. Anything extending more than 12 inches from the building face is treated as a projecting sign, which needs 8 feet of clearance over a pedestrian area, 14 feet over a vehicular area, and cannot project more than 6 feet or obstruct existing signage.
That last one catches deep channel letters mounted on standoffs and any blade sign at an entrance. Clearance for a projecting sign is measured from existing grade to the lowest point of the sign, including framework, so decorative brackets count.
One more measurement rule with budget consequences: all sides of a sign visible from a single vantage point are measured. Two sides count as one only when they are back to back or separated by 45 degrees or less, and if they are unequal, the larger side is what gets measured.
Borrowing and Coordinated Plans
Two mechanisms for tenants who need more than their own elevation provides.
Borrowing allocation
In a multi-tenant building, a tenant may borrow allocation from the rest of the building with the property owner's written consent, up to 1.5 times their own entitlement. So a tenant entitled to 40 square feet can reach 60 with the landlord's agreement, assuming the building has the unused area to give.
Coordinated sign plans
The code provides for coordinated sign plans, which is the mechanism centers, campuses, and larger developments use to set consistent signage across a property and, in some cases, to allow arrangements that the base standards would not. If your center already has one, it governs your project, so ask the landlord for it before designing.
Borrowing requires the owner's written consent, and a verbal agreement from a property manager is not a submittal document. Ask for it at the same time you ask for the tenant criteria, not after the design is finished.
What a Wall Sign Permit Application Requires
The city reviews before the Building Official issues, and the sign must also meet the Regional Building Code. What goes in:
- A completed application and fees.
- A project statement identifying all existing and proposed signage on the parcel, not only yours, and demonstrating how the request meets the review criteria.
- A construction plan, including mounting details and electrical information for illuminated work.
- Owner authorization, plus a shared signage agreement where signage is shared between parties.
- An executed letter of compliance where an electronic message center is part of the project.
The criteria the city applies
Compliance with the sign standards, lighting that is shaded, shielded, or directed so it does not affect adjacent properties or driver and pedestrian visibility, no obstruction of sight visibility at intersections, alleys, or driveways, and mitigation of significant off-site impacts.
Some sign projects require engineered drawings based on the sign type, size, mounting method, and site conditions. We confirm the applicable requirements as part of the project review.
Why Applications Come Back
From the permits our team files, five repeat causes:
- An incomplete signage inventory. The application asks for all existing and proposed signage on the parcel. Listing only the new sign is the fastest route to a correction request.
- A noncompliant sign already on the property. New sign permits are not approved while one is standing, even if someone else installed it.
- Area math that does not match the drawings. Elevation length, sign area, and the measurement method all have to agree, which is where the three-shape rule has to be applied correctly rather than optimistically.
- Missing authorization. Owner consent, borrowed allocation, or a shared signage agreement not included.
- Sight visibility conflicts. A sign that clips a visibility triangle near a driveway or intersection gets denied regardless of how good the design is.
A sixth, specific to new tenants: sign plans are not approved until the building permit for the principal use has been issued. A sign application cannot outrun the tenant improvement work it belongs to.
Timeline, Fees, Expiration
Timeline
In our experience, two to six weeks from submittal to approval for a typical storefront wall sign, longer in a historic district or where a coordinated sign plan applies. Permit review is almost always the longest step in a sign project, which is why we start it the week an estimate is approved rather than after fabrication.
Fees
Fee amounts come from the city's current fee schedule rather than from the ordinance text, and illuminated signs carry building and electrical permit costs through Pikes Peak Regional Building Department. Confirm current figures with the city before budgeting.
Expiration
A sign permit expires 180 days from issuance. Before it lapses, the Building Official may authorize one courtesy extension of another 180 days, and anything past that requires additional fees.
If work starts without one
The contractor and the property owner are jointly and severally liable, additional fees may be due, and paying them does not relieve anyone from compliance or penalties. The practical cost is usually worse than the fee: a noncompliant sign on the property blocks the next permit.
For what the sign itself costs once permitted, see channel letter sign costs and storefront signage cost for a new business.
What to Send Us
Five things, and we can tell you what the wall allows before anyone designs anything:
- The property address.
- Photos of the full building face, not just your storefront, taken straight on if possible.
- The length of your elevation, or enough of a photo that we can establish it.
- The landlord's tenant criteria document, and any coordinated sign plan for the center.
- Your logo files in vector format, since the measurement grouping depends on how the artwork is built.
APG designs, permits, produces, and installs commercial signs across Colorado Springs and El Paso County, including channel letters, storefront and building signs, dimensional lettering, lobby signs, ADA signs, and wayfinding signs. We handle the permit as part of the project, which means the inventory, the measurements, and any corrections are ours to manage.
Once the estimate is approved and the deposit is received, our team will begin the design and proofing process, and permitting starts the same week. Service overview at custom signs in Colorado Springs.
The Short Version
- Wall signs, channel letters, and dimensional lettering all require a permit. Face changes and maintenance on previously permitted signs do not.
- Allowance is 1.5 square feet per linear foot of elevation for commercial and industrial uses, 2 square feet when set back over 200 feet from the right of way, and 1 square foot for office and civic.
- Signs made only of letters and figures are measured using up to three geometric shapes rather than one rectangle, so grouping the layout tightly reduces calculated area.
- Proper font tails on lowercase letters are excluded from the area calculation, but customized or extended tails are included.
- Allocation belongs to the wall it came from, so area cannot be moved from one elevation to another without a coordinated sign plan.
- Tenants may borrow up to 1.5 times their allocation from the rest of the building with the owner's written consent.
- Permits expire at 180 days with one possible courtesy extension, and a noncompliant sign on the property blocks any new sign permit.
Where this information comes from
- City of Colorado Springs Unified Development Code, Chapter 7, Article 4, Part 13 (Signs), as adopted by Sign Ordinance No. 26-01, February 2026. Sections covering applicability and exemptions, sign permits, coordinated sign plans, sign types and criteria, and sign measurement and orientation.
- Sign measurement provisions including the three geometric shape calculation method, wall sign area elements, projecting sign clearance, and sign height measurement.
- Pikes Peak Regional Building Department requirements for building and electrical permits on illuminated signage.
- APG permit and installation records, Colorado Springs office. Observed review timelines and rejection patterns reflect our own filings and are not city published figures.
This guide summarizes a municipal code for general information. It is not legal advice, code language changes, and the city is the final authority on any specific property.
