La Plata County, CO Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Section 73-2 of the La Plata County Code treats signs as a permit-tier condition. Under the no-permit tier and the administrative land use permit tier, the accessory use shall not include any exterior signs, or interior signs visible from the exterior, which identify the accessory use. Window signs are covered, not only yard signs. Under the minor land use permit tier, the accessory use is limited to no more than one sign subject to all other limitations of section 70-20, and the sign is no more than four square feet on each side.

Section 70-20, the county's sign standards, applies to signs in the unincorporated areas. On residential lots no sign of any type exceeds twenty-four square feet, no freestanding sign exceeds five feet in height, and reflecting paint or other materials is prohibited. Signs containing blinking, flashing, fluttering, or intermittent lights are prohibited, and illuminated signs must comply with the lighting standard in section 70-7. Colored lights cannot be used in any location or manner that could create confusion with traffic-control devices, and all signs need at least ten feet of clearance from power lines.

Section 70-20 also exempts certain signs from its standards, including a sign less than six square feet in area, with not more than one such sign per individual business, parcel, lot, or group of contiguous lots under single ownership. Section 73-2 adds its own condition on signs that identify the accessory use, and it was amended by Resolution No. 2022-01, effective January 4, 2022.