Black Hawk County, IA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

BHCC § 18.100.020 opens by requiring a building permit and zoning approval for any sign erected in unincorporated Black Hawk County, then lists categories carved out of that requirement entirely. Item 10 of the exemption list, BHCC § 18.100.020(A)(10), covers 'political signs on private property in compliance with state code.' Because the exemption removes political signs from the section rather than granting a size or duration allowance the way the neighboring garage-sale exemption does, the county's own size caps, illumination ban and the 300-foot buffer from parks, schools, churches and cemeteries in § 18.100.020(F) do not attach to a political sign on private property; compliance is measured against Iowa's own election-sign statute instead.

The county chapter otherwise regulates outdoor advertising heavily: § 18.100.030 confines off-premises billboards to the 'C' commercial and 'C-M' commercial-manufacturing districts, and § 18.100.050 bars outdoor advertising outright in the agricultural and residential districts except for small, unlit accessory signs. Political signs sidestep that entire structure while they sit on private property. A political sign placed in a public street right-of-way, however, is not on private property and falls outside the (A)(10) exemption, putting it back under the county's general prohibition on nonexempt signs in rights-of-way at § 18.100.020(B)(3).

The exemption governs only unincorporated Black Hawk County; Waterloo, Cedar Falls and the county's other cities enforce their own municipal sign codes for political signage inside city limits.