Lakewood, CA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Lakewood treats political signage as an exempted sign category rather than a permitted or CUP use, which puts it in a lighter regulatory lane than commercial signage. Municipal Code § 9502.27 defines a 'Political Sign' as 'any sign designed to support or to oppose a candidate or pertaining to a proposition in a public election.' Section 9504(K) then exempts unlighted political signs from the City's permit and area/height limitations of §§ 9505 and 9506 entirely: they 'shall be allowed without permit prior to an election and up to ten (10) days after the same election.'

That exemption carries two conditions. First, no political sign may sit inside the vision-clearance triangle the City requires at street intersections and driveways under § 9503(D), a fifteen-foot-per-side triangular zone within which no sign taller than 42 inches is allowed for traffic-safety reasons. Second, a political sign cannot be 'maintained in a manner that makes it an obstruction or nuisance,' language that gives the Community Development Department discretion to order removal of a sign that blocks a sidewalk, sight line, or right-of-way regardless of the election-timing exemption. Because political signs are exempt signs under § 9504, they are still not excused from the general prohibitions in § 9503, including the bans on attaching a sign to a utility pole, streetlight, or tree, and on placing one in the public right-of-way.

Responsibility for taking the sign down runs to the candidate or campaign manager, not the property owner, which is the City's enforcement hook when a sign overstays the ten-day post-election window: Community Development staff can trace an unremoved sign back to the named campaign rather than pursuing the parcel owner.