Costa Mesa, CA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Section 13-123 in Article 6 of the sign chapter governs non-commercial portable signs, the category section 13-111 defines to specifically include signs that espouse a political or religious viewpoint or comment on public officials or matters of public discourse. No permit is required, but a qualifying sign must stay within five square feet and no more than three feet above grade, and the owner must affix its name, address, and telephone number to the sign before installing it. Placement is restricted: signs may go in a landscaped parkway (but not a tree well or street median), cannot overhang a street, curb, sidewalk, or driveway, must stay at least 15 feet from any fire hydrant, at least 15 feet from a driveway edge or street/alley intersection measured from the corner radius, and cannot be attached to traffic devices, government signs, light poles, utility poles, bus shelters, fences, shrubs, or trees.

Signs also cannot go in the right-of-way adjacent to property zoned I&R or I&R-S. m. m. Sunday of any week period, but section 13-123(a)(5) lifts that weekend-only restriction during the six weeks before any federal, state, or local election serving Costa Mesa residents, allowing round-the-clock display; signs from that election window must come down within 10 days after election day. A sign carried by a person and no larger than five square feet is exempt from the section entirely, unless it runs afoul of the separate prohibited-signs list in section 13-112.