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

Article 17, the county's outdoor lighting division, would otherwise require most fixtures to be full cutoff luminaires under Section 1705 and to meet the glare and intensity rules elsewhere in the article. Section 1704 lists categories exempt from the entire division, and subsection (f) covers holiday lights and decorations using typical unshielded low-wattage incandescent lamps, so a string of seasonal lights on a house or tree does not need to be shielded or reviewed the way a permanent security light or commercial fixture does. The tradeoff is timing: the exemption only holds if the lights are removed within a reasonable period following the holiday season to which they pertain, a standard the code leaves undefined by a fixed day count.

The sign article separately defines "holiday decorations" at Section 711 as non-permanent signs or displays, including lighting, that celebrate national, state, local, religious or cultural holidays or other holiday seasons, confirming the same seasonal, temporary character drives both provisions. A display that keeps its unshielded incandescent lamps but simply never comes down loses the exemption and reverts to ordinary Article 17 fixture rules.