Island County, WA Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Section 17.03.180.R.3 lists the sign types exempt from the permit, size and placement rules that apply to commercial and other signage in unincorporated Island County, and subsection f covers 'holiday and seasonal decoration signs.' The definitions section, 17.03.040, describes a 'sign, holiday decoration' as one meaning 'temporary signs, in the nature of decorations, clearly incidental to and customarily and commonly associated with any national, local or religious holiday.' Unlike the county's special event or temporary sign exemption, which caps display at 30 calendar days and requires a temporary sign permit to track that window, the holiday-decoration exemption in R.3.f carries no stated duration limit, square footage cap or permit-tracking requirement in the code as written.

That means a homeowner or business can put up holiday lighting, wreaths, inflatable decorations or similar seasonal displays without applying for the building permit that section 17.03.180.R.5 otherwise requires for new or replacement signs. The exemption does not, however, waive the general sign standards that apply regardless of exemption status, such as the placement rule in R.7.g barring any sign within a public right-of-way absent county authorization, or the general prohibition on signs that create a traffic hazard under R.4.g.