Palm Desert, CA Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

Palm Desert handles garage sale signs through two sets of rules. Chapter 5.82 covers special event sales, a term defined to include garage sales, yard sales and patio sales in residential districts. No one can hold such a sale in a residential district without a permit from the city, and the fee is $10 for each special event sale (§ 5.82.020). Section 5.82.030 then ties the permit to the sign rules: persons granted a permit must comply with the provisions regulating and controlling the use of signs, and failure to comply results in the permit being revoked and gives cause to deny future permit requests. As printed, that section points to Chapter 25.68.

The sign provision that names garage sale signs is Section 25.56.050, the list of prohibited signs. Item L bans signs on public property, in the public right-of-way or on public utility poles unless the chapter authorizes otherwise, and it states that the ban includes realtor, open house and garage sale signs. The same item reaches all portable signs, including signs placed on vehicles, with exceptions only for vehicle identification signs and permitted signs on taxicabs. Item M separately prohibits temporary or portable freestanding signs except as otherwise provided in the chapter, and item N prohibits vehicle signs. A garage sale sign staked in the public right-of-way or tied to a utility pole therefore falls inside a named prohibition.

The sale itself is limited by § 5.82.040 to seventy-two consecutive hours and two such special event sales in any calendar year. Any person who violates any provision of Chapter 5.82 is guilty of an infraction (§ 5.82.050).