Palmdale, CA Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

PMC § 17.88.070(J), in the Chapter 17.88 exemptions to sign permit requirements, covers signs accompanying the sale of personal property: one sign not exceeding four square feet in area may be placed on residential property where personal property, the yard-sale or garage-sale scenario the exemption is written for, is displayed for sale. Because it is an exemption, a compliant sign does not need a separate sign permit application before it goes up for the sale.

Responsibility for a yard-sale sign becomes a live issue once a sign turns up somewhere it should not be, such as stapled to a utility pole or planted in the public right-of-way. PMC § 17.88.180(E), the Administration chapter's removal-of-illegal-signs section, builds in a rebuttable presumption specifically for this scenario: the owner, or lessee if the property is leased, of property used for a yard or garage sale is presumed to be the person responsible for posting a handbill or sign advertising that sale. A person presumed responsible can rebut the presumption by declaring under penalty of perjury, or swearing under oath, that they did not cause, authorize, allow, or permit the posting. The same Section lets the Director remove an unlawfully placed sign from public property, hold it, and destroy or dispose of it if the owner does not claim it within 10 days of written notice, and the sign owner must reimburse the City for the actual cost of removing, storing, and disposing of the sign.