Birmingham has 30 days to approve, deny, or conditionally approve a sign permit. That clock does not start when you submit. It starts when the city has a completed application and your fee has been paid. Most delays that business owners blame on City Hall trace back to one of two things: a submission missing a required drawing, or a sign that was never permittable at that address in the first place.
The city rewrote its sign ordinance in October 2024, and those rules now sit in the current edition of the Birmingham Zoning Ordinance. If your last sign project predates that vote, some of what you remember has changed.
Who Issues Sign Permits In Birmingham
The Department of Planning, Engineering and Permits, known locally as PEP, handles the majority of permits for the City of Birmingham, sign permits included. Applications run through the city’s Online Permit Center, where you can also pay, track review status, and print the approved permit once it clears. PEP takes questions at 205-254-2904, and the Zoning Division at 205-254-2478.
Two other agencies can enter the picture, and neither one replaces the city permit:
- Birmingham DOT (BDOT) handles right of way permits. If any part of your sign, footing, or installation equipment encroaches on public right of way, that is a separate application with its own fee, paid before processing begins.
- ALDOT permits outdoor advertising signs along the National Highway System, interstates, and primary routes under the Highway Beautification Act.
These stack on top of the city permit rather than substituting for it. A sign near a state route in a right of way can require all three.
What Birmingham Requires On The Application
The ordinance spells out what a sign permit application must contain:
- Name, address, and telephone number of the sign contractor and the owner and occupant
- A drawing site plan to scale showing all existing signs displayed on the premises, plus the location, height, sign type, and size of what you are proposing
- Specifications for the construction and display of the sign, and for its illumination
Pay attention to the existing signs requirement. Birmingham evaluates your property as a whole, not just the one sign you are adding. A tenant who submits a drawing showing only the new storefront sign, while ignoring the shopping center pylon and the directory panel already on site, has filed an incomplete application. The 30 day clock does not begin.
Whether the city requires drawings sealed by a licensed engineer depends on the structure. Confirm that with PEP before your fabricator finalizes shop drawings, because engineering added after the fact costs time you planned to spend on installation.
Planning Around The 30 Day Review
The ordinance language is specific. The Director or a designee must approve, deny, or approve with conditions within 30 days from the date a completed application and permit fee is filed.
Thirty days is the decision window, not the project timeline. Fabrication and installation follow approval, and a custom cabinet or channel letter set carries its own lead time. Work backward from the date you need the sign lit. A business targeting a grand opening in October should have a complete application filed by late summer, not the week the space is finished.
Conditional approvals deserve attention too. An approval with conditions is not a rejection, but it does mean something in your submission has to change before installation, and unaddressed conditions surface at inspection.
Signs Birmingham Will Not Permit At All
Some of the most commonly purchased advertising products are prohibited outright in Birmingham. The ordinance bars:
- Feather signs, portable signs, and inflatable signs, along with signs that move or are powered by airflow
- Roof signs and stacked signs
- Signs attached to trees, utility poles, or streetlights, and signs placed on public property
- Signs producing noise or sound, and signs emitting odor, visible smoke, vapor, or particles
- Spotlights and searchlights, which are prohibited on all signs
- Graffiti
Feather flags and portable trailer signs account for a large share of good faith violations by local retailers, usually purchased online by an owner who had no reason to think a temporary banner needed city approval. The cost of that mistake is not just the wasted purchase. It is the enforcement action that follows.
Digital Sign Rules That Change The Math
If you are pricing an LED message center, read this section before you sign a purchase order. Birmingham regulates dynamic displays tightly, and these rules affect what the sign can actually do for you:
- One contiguous dynamic element per sign face
- The dynamic element may not change more often than once every 10 seconds, with an exception for hour and minute, date, or temperature corrections
- Images and messages must be static, with instantaneous transitions and no special effects
- No animated, flashing, or scrolling copy
- Signs installed after the ordinance took effect must have automatic brightness adjustment that responds to ambient conditions
- No sign may be brighter than is necessary for clear and adequate visibility
The 10 second minimum dwell is the one that surprises buyers. A display marketed on how many messages it can rotate per minute cannot legally run that way here. The automatic dimming requirement also rules out lower cost panels that lack an ambient light sensor. Both belong in your specification from the start, not in a change order. Our digital signs are built to meet these requirements.
Historic Districts Add A Second Committee
In parts of Birmingham, PEP approval is not the only approval you need. The city’s Design Review Committee reviews all signs and signage design, including billboards and other outdoor advertising, within Commercial Revitalization Districts and Local Historic Districts.
There are 26 Commercial Revitalization Districts, covering areas including Lakeview, Woodlawn, Ensley, Five Points South, Five Points West, Downtown West, Parkside, Midtown, East Lake, North Birmingham, Roebuck, Smithfield, and Wylam. Local Historic Districts include Anderson Place, Avondale Park, Cullom Street, Forest Park, Highland Park, Norwood, Phelan Park, Red Mountain Suburbs, and Roebuck Springs.
The committee’s calendar drives your schedule. It meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 a.m., dropping to once monthly in November and December. Miss a submittal deadline in early November and your next realistic hearing may be in the new year. The Urban Design staff can confirm deadlines at 205-254-2479.
Pole Signs Carry Extra Limits And An Annual Fee
New pole signs are not permitted in an Area of Special Aesthetic Concern. That designation covers more ground than most owners expect, including historic districts, scenic corridors, B-3 Community Business Districts, and areas established by City Council resolution as community renewal, commercial revitalization, neighborhood revitalization, urban renewal, or downtown master plan project areas.
Pole signs also carry an obligation that does not end at installation: a recurring annual fee due by January 31 each year. If a pole sign came with a property you purchased, that fee transferred to you.
Where a pole sign is off the table, a monument sign is usually the practical alternative, and it tends to fare better in design review.
Your Address Decides Which Rulebook Applies
“Birmingham” in a mailing address does not mean the City of Birmingham has jurisdiction. Each metro municipality runs its own process:
- Hoover requires a permit before displaying a new sign, and also for alterations to an existing sign, including a lettering change for a business name change. Reach the office at 205-739-6841.
- Vestavia Hills routes signage permits through Building Safety, under its zoning code adopted as Ordinance No. 3099.
- Homewood handles zoning permit review through its Department of Engineering and Zoning.
- Trussville regulates signs under Article XI of its zoning appendix.
- Mountain Brook combines the two steps into a single sign application and design review application.
- McCalla is not a city at all. It is an unincorporated community spanning both Jefferson and Tuscaloosa counties, so jurisdiction depends on which county your parcel sits in. For the Jefferson County side, Development Services handles permits at 205-325-5321. We cover the area from our outdoor signs in McCalla, AL service.
Hoover, Vestavia Hills, and Homewood each straddle Jefferson and Shelby counties, which means county level requirements can differ between two locations of the same business inside the same city.
What A Sign Permit Costs
Birmingham does not publish a sign permit fee schedule online. Fees are adopted by the City Council under the City of Birmingham Technical Code, and the ordinance states they are in addition to, not in lieu of, any other fees or licenses required. Call PEP at 205-254-2904 for a current figure before you budget.
Some neighboring cities are more transparent. Hoover publishes its structure directly: $9.00 per $1,000 of job cost plus a $51.50 issuance fee, a CICT fee of $1.00 per $1,000, and a $51 minimum. Use that as a rough sense of scale, not as a Birmingham estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a permit just to change the lettering on an existing sign?
It depends on the jurisdiction. Hoover explicitly requires a permit for alterations to an existing sign, including a lettering change for a business name change. For a Birmingham address, confirm with PEP before your installer schedules the work.
How long does a Birmingham sign permit take?
The ordinance requires a decision within 30 days of a completed application with the fee paid. An incomplete submission restarts that expectation, and projects in a historic district or revitalization district add a Design Review Committee hearing on top.
What happens if I install a sign without a permit?
Violations fall under the enforcement provisions in Chapter 9, Article II of the ordinance. Beyond the penalty itself, an unpermitted sign is a liability at resale, at lease renewal, and on an insurance claim after storm damage. Getting it permitted after the fact is more expensive than doing it in order.
Let Your Sign Company Handle The Paperwork
Permitting is the step where sign projects quietly lose a month. The rules span a city ordinance, a design review calendar, a county line, and sometimes a state highway department, and none of them are written for the business owner trying to open on schedule.
Reliable Signs has handled sign permitting in Birmingham, AL since 1994, preparing the drawings, site plans, and specifications municipalities require and working directly with local authorities so your project stays legal and on schedule. We design, fabricate, install, and service business signs in Birmingham built for Alabama conditions, and once your sign is up, it is worth knowing how to protect it from Alabama heat and storms. Contact our team today to start your permit review before your opening date is at risk.
