Fountain Valley, CA Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Holiday lighting in the City of Fountain Valley is handled through the sign chapter of the Development Code, Chapter 21.24. Section 21.24.060 defines "sign" as the public display of a communicative visual image, visible from an exterior location open to the public, meant to attract attention or express a message. It then lists items that are not within that definition, and item (5) is holiday decorations, cultural observance imagery, and strings of lights.

Three conditions attach. The display must be in conjunction with a state or national holiday. It must be on display for not more than forty-five calendar days per year, counted cumulatively per parcel or use, so two separate seasons at the same address share one forty-five day allowance. And it must not include commercial advertising messages.

A display that meets those conditions is outside the sign chapter altogether, so no sign permit is involved. A display that runs past forty-five cumulative days, or that carries a commercial message, is no longer excluded from the definition and can be treated as a sign under Chapter 21.24. That matters because the same chapter lists "strings of lights or signs outlined with individual light bulbs" among the signs in the exemption section, and the definition of animated sign includes string lighting of any type, including blinking lights. Lights left up for a business, or lights that blink to draw attention as a commercial display, are therefore the ones most exposed.

The City Council adopted the sign chapter as Ordinance 1467 in 2011. Section 21.24.130 makes it unlawful for a property owner, operator or tenant to fail to comply with the sign standards or to lack a required approval, and allows the city to use any method authorized by law to remedy a sign in violation.