West Covina, CA Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

Section 26-100 lists the signs the Development Code exempts from a sign permit, and subsection (l) covers garage, estate, and yard sale signs specifically. The city allows a maximum of one such sign per sale, and it cannot exceed six square feet in area, smaller than the 32-square-foot allowance the same section gives general temporary noncommercial signs on residential property. The display window is tight: the sign cannot be displayed for a period longer than one day within a one-year period, so a resident holding a weekend-long sale needs to plan around a single posting day rather than leaving the sign up for the sale's full duration.

The sign also cannot be placed or posted within the public right-of-way, which rules out the parkway strip, median, or street shoulder even though that is the most visible spot for passing traffic. Because it is listed as an exempt sign under Sec. 26-100, a garage sale sign that meets these limits does not need a separate sign permit application to the Community Development Department, unlike the commercial and monument signs regulated elsewhere in Sec. 26-102 and Sec. 26-103. Exempt status is conditioned on the sign not being illuminated and not creating a public nuisance; a sign that fails either condition loses the exemption and falls back under the general permit requirement in Sec.

26-99. The exemption exists alongside similar carve-outs for real estate signs, election signs, and construction signs in the same section, each with its own size and duration limits.