Ames, IA Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Ames Municipal Code Sec. 21.122 sets the baseline height limit for ground signs citywide at fifty (50) feet, but subsection (2)(a) creates a corridor exception for the interstate: at any point within 1,500 feet of the edge of the Interstate 35 right-of-way, a ground sign may reach up to 100 feet, measured from the base of the sign support to the top of the sign, roughly double the citywide maximum. The same section regulates the rest of a ground sign's footprint: off-premises ground signs are capped at three hundred (300) square feet of sign surface per side under Sec.

21.122(2)(b), no ground sign may be erected nearer the street than the property line without City Council approval to overhang the public right-of-way under Sec. 21.122(2)(c), and on-premises ground signs on the same business location must be spaced at least fifty (50) feet apart under Sec. 21.122(2)(d). Subsection (3) makes the property owner responsible for keeping the area around every ground sign sanitary and free of rubbish, litter, and weeds. Ground signs require a permit administered under Chapter 21, unless the sign falls within the narrow permit exemptions of Sec.

21.115. Because Chapter 21 carries no sign-specific penalty section, a violation defaults to the citywide municipal infraction schedule in Sec. 1.9: $30 for a first violation, $100 for a first repeat violation, and $200 for each subsequent repeat violation, with each day of a continuing violation counted separately.