Commerce City, CO Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Section 21-7700 sets the scope of Commerce City's exterior lighting standards, applying them to essentially every lighting system built, altered or relocated in any zone district except single-family residential. The section then carves out eight specific exceptions in subsection (2), covering things like previously-approved designs not yet built, lighting that controls pedestrian or vehicle flow, temporary construction lighting that shuts off daily, FAA-required aviation lighting, director-approved civic monuments, event-permit lighting and city-owned facilities. Holiday lighting sits among those exceptions: decorative lighting for any national, state, local or religious holiday is exempt from the standards as long as it is temporary in nature and energized for no more than 90 nights in any rolling 12-month period.

That exemption is narrow. It does not create a separate holiday-lighting code; it simply lets a seasonal display skip the shielding, timer, height and foot-candle rules in §§ 21-7701 through 21-7703 while it stays within the 90-night limit. Once a homeowner or business leaves lights up and energized beyond that count, whether across one holiday season or by adding multiple holidays together within the same 12 months, the display loses its exempt status and must instead comply with the city's full outdoor lighting plan, shielding and illumination standards like any other permanent fixture.