Waukegan, IL Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

e of the Unified Development Ordinance cross-references the City's yard sign standard for every garage and yard sale sign, and that substantive standard is written out in the Primary Signs section under the heading N. 04). Under that standard, a yard sign, including a garage sale sign, is capped at eight square feet of total measured sign area in the CR, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, L1, L2, and L3 Districts, the residential and conservation districts where nearly all garage sales occur, versus 32 square feet in the City's other districts.

The sign face may be wood, metal, or other material, but its surrounding trim and supporting uprights must be securely anchored in the ground, and the top of those uprights cannot rise more than six feet off the ground. For non-commercial property, which covers the overwhelming majority of garage sale sites, the sign must be set back at least four feet from the right-of-way in any required yard. The same standard's display-duration clause, written for real estate transactions, says a yard sign may be displayed only from the time of offering until one week after closing or the execution of a lease; because subsection e cross-references this standard without carving out an exception, a garage sale sign is subject to the same general size, anchoring, and setback rules even though the closing/lease language does not map cleanly onto a garage sale. The clearer operative limits for a garage sale sign are therefore the eight-square-foot cap, the six-foot post height, and the four-foot right-of-way setback.