Joliet, IL Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Section 8-475(c), part of the city's temporary signs, feather signs and banners division, states plainly that 'this division does not apply to civic flags, political signs, directional signs or 501(c)(3) signs,' so long as those signs 'are not located in the public right-of-way or on public property.' That means a political sign placed on private property, a yard, a business lot, needs no temporary sign permit, no $50 application fee under § 8-476(a), and isn't subject to the division's size, spacing or 30-day duration limits that apply to ordinary temporary signs and banners under § 8-473.

The exemption's only real limit is location. Section 8-472 defines a 'right-of-way temporary sign' as any temporary sign, feather sign or banner located in the public right-of-way, and states that 'only public utility or governmental essential service signs are allowed in the public right-of-way.' A political sign placed in a street parkway, median, or other public right-of-way therefore isn't just outside the exemption, it's a type of sign the code doesn't allow there at all, regardless of a permit.

This division, including the political-sign exemption, dates to Ord. No. 17353, adopted April 6, 2015, which rewrote the city's temporary sign, feather sign and banner rules as a whole.