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

The County of San Mateo does not maintain a distinct garage-sale or yard-sale sign ordinance for unincorporated areas. Temporary signs are addressed within the sign provisions of the various zoning districts in the Development Code (formerly Zoning Regulations). Those district sign standards consistently list prohibited signs, which include off-premises signs and abandoned signs. A garage-sale sign placed on a utility pole, in the median, or on another property is typically an off-premises sign and is not permitted; a sign left up after the sale becomes an abandoned sign. Signs placed in the public right-of-way (sidewalks, medians, and roadway shoulders) may be removed by the County. Best practice in unincorporated San Mateo County is to keep garage-sale signs on the seller's own property, keep them small and temporary, avoid the public right-of-way, and remove them immediately after the sale concludes. Because the County regulates signs in a content-neutral manner, the same time/place/manner rules that apply to other temporary residential signs apply to garage-sale signs.