Mount Prospect, IL Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Section 14.314, Outdoor Lighting Regulations, sets the Village of Mount Prospect standards for all outdoor lighting except streetlights. The general requirement is that electric lighting used to illuminate outdoor areas be directed in such a way as to prevent light trespass or direct glare onto adjacent properties and rights-of-way. Subsection B adds maximum foot-candle readings at the lot line, with 0.1 next to single-family residential property and 0.2 next to multi-family residential property.

Subsection D lists exceptions to those standards. Item 2, Seasonal Lighting Displays, exempts lighting displays that are installed for less than seventy five days over any continuous twelve month period. The count is per installation across a rolling twelve months, so a display that stays up for seventy five days or more does not qualify for the exception and has to meet the section's standards. A separate exception in item 1 covers low voltage ornamental landscape lighting of twelve volts or less, where a single fixture does not exceed one hundred lumens.

Subsection E adds that any lighting that does not conform to the section's regulations shall be made to conform by means of alteration.

Decorations that operate as signs are handled in Chapter 7. Section 7.202D lists holiday decorations among its examples of noncommercial temporary signs. On single-family residential properties the total area of all such signs on a lot cannot exceed sixteen square feet, they are allowed for a period not to exceed ninety days, and they are removed within three days after the conclusion of a special event. Signs that do not meet those temporal requirements require a permit.