Davis, CA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

020(a)(1) permits noncommercial advertising signs conveying the ideas or beliefs of the property's owner or occupant, including signs on sociological, religious or economic subjects of public interest, in every zoning district, as long as the sign otherwise meets that district's size and height rules for signs. Subsection (a)(2) goes further for renters: notwithstanding any lease provision to the contrary, a landlord or lessor cannot prohibit a tenant lawfully in possession from posting noncommercial signs otherwise allowed by the code, so a lease clause banning yard signs cannot be enforced against political or issue speech.

020, including the ban on traffic-hazard placement in subsection (a)(5) and the six-hundred-foot freeway sign rules in Chapter 3 of the Municipal Code referenced in subsection (a)(3). A sign is a traffic hazard if it interferes with sight distance or could be mistaken for a traffic sign or signal, or if it sits in the public right-of-way without an encroachment permit. Because political and issue signs are treated as protected noncommercial speech rather than as billboards, they are not subject to the article's stricter provisions capping duration or requiring a design review application, which apply instead to commercial banners and temporary construction signage.