Look, I've been doing this 27 years. I've watched a sign shop in Denver drop $12,000 on a set of halo-lit channel letters, ship 'em from our factory in China, install 'em perfect, and then the city inspector shows up and says, "Where's your engineering stamp?"
Guy had to fly a local PE out for a weekend, pay him $2,500, and wait three more weeks for plan approval. That sign sat in the back of his truck for a month. A whole month.
Here's what nobody tells you: The sign permitting process in the US isn't about whether your sign looks good. It's about whether you've got every piece of paper the local building department dreamed up back when disco was still popular.
Every city has its own set of rules, and they change more often than my wife redecorates the living room. The ugly truth? I've seen sign shops lose entire summer seasons because they didn't start the permit process early enough.
If you're doing just one sign in a strip mall, you might think you can skip permits. Don't gamble. Fines can hit $500 a day in some cities, and they'll make you take down a perfectly good sign just to prove a point.
Most city websites claim a 2-4 week turnaround for sign permits. Bull. I've had clients in San Francisco wait 12 weeks for a simple front-lit channel letter set. Why? Because the planning department had one guy reviewing sign applications, and he was on vacation for three of those weeks.
Realistic timeline? Plan on 4-8 weeks for standard signs—front-lit channel letters, flat cabinet signs, that sort of thing. If you're doing something that touches the building structure, like a projecting sign or a roof sign, add another 4 weeks for the structural engineering review
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