Black Hawk County, IA Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

190(G) limits home occupations on unincorporated county land to a single identification sign. The sign may contain only the name of the occupant and the nature of the occupation, so a business can't add a slogan, logo panel, product list or additional advertising copy beyond that basic identification. The size cap is 32 square feet, and the sign cannot exceed 12 feet in height or 12 feet in width. Illumination of any kind is prohibited outright: the sign must be unlit, whether by internal lighting, spotlighting or any other method.

If the property fronts a state or federal highway, the sign also needs a permit from the Iowa Department of Transportation before it goes up, on top of any county sign approval. 200(G), so a business run from a detached garage or pole barn faces the same sign limits as one run from inside the house. These standards were adopted by Ordinance 36 in 1995 and remain in force unchanged. Because the sign rule sits inside BHCC Title 18, it governs only land the county zones directly; a home business inside Waterloo, Cedar Falls or any of the county's other incorporated cities follows that city's own sign ordinance instead.