Black Hawk County, IA Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

020 regulates every sign in every zoning district of unincorporated Black Hawk County and normally requires a building permit and zoning approval before a sign goes up. Subsection (A) lists exemptions from that permitting requirement, and item 7 covers 'For Sale' and 'Garage Sale' type signage: it is exempt only when it measures less than six square feet and is displayed only on days of sale on private property. Put the sign out the week before the sale, or leave it standing after the sale ends, and it no longer qualifies for the exemption; it becomes subject to the section's general rules, which bar signs with flashing or moving parts, nonaffixed signs, signs in street rights-of-way, and signs facing the front or side lot line of an abutting residential use.

The same exemption list covers other small private-property notices the county treats similarly: temporary construction signs up to 32 square feet, temporary banners capped at 60 days (90 cumulative days per year), and warning or no-trespassing signs. 040, which apply only in the 'C' commercial and 'C-M' commercial-manufacturing districts. The exemption applies only to unincorporated Black Hawk County; Waterloo, Cedar Falls and the county's other cities set their own sign codes for residents holding a garage sale inside city limits.