Novi, MI Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Chapter 28 of the Novi Code regulates the erection, size, and duration of signs citywide, generally requiring a permit under Section 28-3 before anyone erects, alters, or relocates a sign. Section 28-1's definitions section carves decorative holiday displays out of that system entirely: a display is not a 'sign' for purposes of the chapter, and therefore needs no sign permit, if it is a decorative display connected with a recognized holiday and stays up no more than 75 days. That 75-day ceiling is the only quantitative limit in the code on how long a homeowner or business may keep holiday lights, inflatables, or similar decorations installed; once a display exceeds that window it loses the exemption and becomes a sign subject to the chapter's permit, size, and placement rules like any other sign.

Section 28-10(b)(3) separately prohibits string lights on nonresidential buildings, meaning strips of LED or neon lighting installed along window perimeters or building edges to draw attention to a business, but it expressly exempts temporary lights, including holiday lighting, that are otherwise regulated under Chapter 28, so the 75-day rule in Section 28-1 remains the operative limit rather than the general string-light ban. The city's building official administers sign compliance, and Section 28-16 makes any sign erected, maintained, or displayed in violation of the chapter a public nuisance per se and a municipal civil infraction, which would apply to a holiday display left up beyond the 75-day cutoff since it would then be an unpermitted sign.