Port Orange, FL Sign Regulations: Holiday Displays (2026)

Chapter 15 of the Land Development Code, effective October 19, 2021, lists 'temporary decorations or displays' among the sign types exempt from the permit requirement of Section 3. Section 4(b)(6) allows such displays to be 'of any type, number, area, height, location, illumination, or animation,' meaning a homeowner or business does not need a sign permit for holiday lights, inflatable decorations, or seasonal banners regardless of their size or brightness. The tradeoff is duration: the display cannot run for more than 45 consecutive days, and the combined days it is up cannot exceed 75 in one calendar year, so a property that strings lights for the winter holidays and again for a spring event has to track both stretches against that shared 75-day annual cap.

Two conditions still apply throughout the exemption: the decoration must be maintained so it does not become a fire hazard, and it cannot be located where it conflicts with, interferes with, or visually distracts from a traffic regulatory device such as a stop sign or signal. Because this is an exemption from Section 3's general permit requirement rather than a freestanding prohibition, a display that runs longer than the day limits does not automatically become illegal; it loses its exempt status and would need to comply with the chapter's standard temporary-sign permitting and duration tables instead, administered by the community development department.