Hoboken, NJ Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

City Code § 196-31C(1) lists political signs among the signs permitted in every zoning district in Hoboken without a certificate of zoning compliance or building permit, unlike most other sign types the chapter regulates. The section defines a political sign as a temporary sign announcing or supporting a candidate or issue in a national, state or local election, and it sets a strict display window rather than a size or placement limit: the sign may go up no more than 60 days before the election it addresses and must come down no later than three days after that election.

That window applies citywide and to any residential, commercial or industrial district alike, since Subsection C's list of universally permitted signs isn't limited to one zone. Political signs sit in the same subsection as other permit-free signs, including real estate signs and temporary event banners, but the code treats them distinctly by exempting them from the four-week cap that Subsection A places on ordinary temporary signs; only the 60-day-before/three-day-after window controls a political sign's duration. The rule doesn't address size, number or setback for political signs, so those characteristics fall outside what § 196-31C(1)(i) itself regulates, and a sign that meets the display window is not subject to the zoning or building permit process that governs Hoboken's other sign types.