Boone County, IN Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Section 157.038(B)(6) lists categories of signage the county chooses not to regulate as signs at all, distinct from the signs that are merely allowed without a permit under Table 11. That exempt list covers legally required public notices, small interior signs not visible from off the lot, non-commercial works of art, commercial murals on barns and silos, traffic control signs meeting federal standards, and time-limited campaign signs, and subsection (e) adds holiday lights and decorations with no commercial message. Because the exemption is written into the list of uses excluded from regulation under the chapter rather than into Table 11's district-by-district area and permit table, a qualifying holiday display does not need an improvement location permit, is not counted against the lot's permitted sign area, and is not subject to the height, setback or lighting standards that apply to permanent signs.

The only condition the text imposes is the content restriction itself: the display cannot carry a commercial message. Once a light display or decoration in the yard, on the building or on a fence starts naming a business, product or sale, it stops qualifying as an exempt holiday decoration and instead has to be evaluated as an ordinary sign under Table 11's requirements for the applicable zoning district, including whatever permit and area limits apply there.