Dubuque, IA Holiday Decorations: Lawn Ornament Rules (2026)

Dubuque's unified development code defines a 'HOLIDAY DECORATION SIGN' at § 16-15-5 as 'a temporary sign, in the nature of decorations, customary and commonly associated with federal, state, local, or religious holidays and containing no commercial message.' That definition sits inside the sign chapter, and § 16-15-9 lists 'holiday or special events decorations' among the signs exempt from the chapter's requirements. The exemption is unconditional: unlike the temporary signs regulated at § 16-15-10, holiday decorations carry no permit application, no fee, no thirty-two-square-foot area cap, and no thirty-day duration limit.

Section 16-15-10.A requires anyone erecting a temporary sign, other than a real estate or political sign, to first apply, pay the permit fee, and obtain a temporary sign permit from the Building Official; holiday and special-event decorations bypass that requirement entirely because they are exempt rather than merely permitted-with-conditions. Quasi-public signs and temporary business signs in the same chapter are capped at thirty (30) days and thirty-two (32) square feet, limits that do not reach a resident's or business's holiday lights, inflatables, or lawn figures so long as the display stays decorative and non-commercial.

The exemption turns on the definition's own words: the moment a yard display carries a commercial message, or is not the kind customarily associated with a holiday or special event, it falls out of § 16-15-9.A and back into the sign chapter's ordinary permit and area rules, including the Building Official's enforcement power under § 16-15-3. Dubuque's code has no separate 'lawn ornament' section outside the sign chapter, so this exempt-signs clause is the only citywide rule touching holiday yard displays.