Cathedral City, CA Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

Garage sale signs in Cathedral City, Riverside County, are handled in Section 5.35.060 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code, titled Advertising by signs. The section is one sentence long: persons granted a garage sale permit shall comply with the garage sale sign policy of the city fire department. The municipal code itself does not print sign dimensions, a limit on the number of signs, or a removal deadline in that section. Those details sit in the fire department's policy, which is a separate document from the code.

The sign rule rides on the permit. Section 5.35.010 bars anyone from conducting a garage sale without first receiving garage sale permit approval from the fire department, and Section 5.35.040 sends applications to the code compliance division of the city fire department, the same department that owns the sign policy. A permit is active for forty-eight hours starting at seven a.m. on the designated start date under Section 5.35.050, and the permit itself must be conspicuously posted during all hours of operation so it is viewable from the street.

Section 5.35.060 sits next to the definition in Section 5.35.020, which covers garage sales, yard sales, patio sales and similar sales in a residential district. The enforcement chain is spelled out in the chapter. Section 5.35.090 treats a violation of Section 5.35.060 as a public nuisance under Chapter 13.80, including administrative fines. Section 5.35.100 treats it as an infraction under Chapter 13.65. Section 5.35.110 sets the fine ladder, and Section 5.35.120 lets the city issue an administrative citation under Chapter 13.58 instead of an infraction citation. Section 5.35.140 makes a violation by a holder of any city permit or license grounds for modification, suspension or revocation under Chapter 13.150.