Cherokee County, GA Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

14 of the Zoning Ordinance lists outdoor lights exempt from every requirement of Article 25, the Outdoor Lighting and Road Glare ordinance adopted by Ord. No. 2001-009 and amended by Ord. No. 2024-O-002. Item J of that exemption list covers 'low-wattage light sources used for holiday decorations,' placing them in the same exempt category as airport safety lighting, emergency vehicle lighting, and neon or argon tubing. shutoff that Sec. 6(I)(2) imposes on outdoor sales, parking and security lighting, not the vertical illuminance caps of Sec.

3, and not the ban in Sec. 7(B) on series or strings of lights within 150 feet of a roadway that would otherwise catch strand lighting near a street. The ordinance does not define a specific wattage threshold for 'low-wattage,' so the community development director, who administers Article 25 under Sec. 9, is left to judge whether a given display still qualifies as a holiday decoration rather than commercial or security lighting dressed up as one. A homeowner or business stringing seasonal lights that draw meaningfully more power than typical decorative strands, or that function as advertising or security lighting for part of the year, risks losing the exemption and being held to the full-cutoff, curfew and trespass standards that apply to non-exempt fixtures.