New Braunfels, TX Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

Chapter 106 exempts a handful of everyday signs from the city's sign permit requirement, and the garage or yard sale sign is one of them: Sec. 106-10(b)(14) allows a sign of up to eight square feet advertising a garage or yard sale in any zoning district, residential or commercial, with no building permit and no fee. That sign only covers a lawful sale, and Sec. 82-5(b) defines what qualifies as one. An 'occasional sale' can run no more than five consecutive days, must consist of surplus household items rather than merchandise purchased for resale, and cannot be held more than twice in any calendar year, with the two sales spaced at least six months apart.

Selling more often than that reclassifies the activity as a 'continuous sale' of new or used merchandise in a residential district, which Sec. 82-5(a) prohibits outright. The same subsection that authorizes the advertising signs also restricts where they go: signs cannot be attached to a utility pole, a city-owned pole or post, or any other device on public property. The only place a sign may sit is the seller's own yard. Because the eight-square-foot sign is permit-exempt, it still has to meet the general sign construction and maintenance standards of Sec.

106-18, including being kept in good repair, and it must come down once the sale ends; a nonconforming or expired sign left standing becomes an unlawful sign the city can order removed.