Canton, OH Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Canton Codified Ordinances Section 1185.01, Exempt Light, lists the outdoor lighting the City's illumination chapter does not regulate: airport lighting, temporary emergency lighting disconnected immediately after the emergency ends, fossil fuel lamps, and temporary residential holiday lighting, but that last category is exempt only if it is illuminated for less than ninety days per year. Chapter 1185, Outdoor Illumination, otherwise governs every exterior lighting system in the city, so a holiday display that stays lit for ninety days or more loses its exemption and becomes subject to Section 1185.02's design requirements: minimizing glare on or off the property, preventing light trespass beyond the lot line, avoiding sky illumination, and meeting the chapter's fixture, shielding and pole-height rules.

Both sections were adopted by Ordinance 147-2018, passed July 2, 2018, as part of Title Nineteen's General Development Standards within the Planning and Zoning Code. Because the ninety-day exemption is measured in total days illuminated per year rather than a fixed calendar window, a homeowner who runs holiday lights across two separate stretches, for example a fall display and a winter display, needs to keep the combined days under ninety to stay exempt. The Zoning Inspector, housed in the Division of Inspections and Code Enforcement, is the official who determines whether a display has exceeded the exemption and become a lighting-code violation.