Lawrence, KS Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Section 5-2018(e) sets the normal temporary-sign standards by zoning district: in residential districts a lot is capped at three or four signs at a time depending on street frontage, and in commercial and industrial districts the cap runs two to six signs depending on the number of tenants and street frontages. Political signs get carved out of those counting rules. In residential districts, the code creates an outright exception to the maximum number of signs for temporary signs installed on a lot for no more than 50 days before, and ten days after, the date of a political election, referendum, or ballot measure, so those signs don't count against the normal cap.

The same 50-day-before, 10-day-after window shows up again for commercial and industrial lots, where political signs of that kind, up to eight square feet, are exempted both from the sign permit requirement and from the article's 45-day annual display-time limit and its own maximum-number cap. The exemption also interacts with the city's electronic message center rule: a property with an operating EMC sign is normally limited to two additional temporary signs, but that cap excludes political signs placed within the 50-day/10-day election window (Sec. 5-2019(d)(6), Sec.

5-2020(j)). Because Lawrence enforces a message-neutrality policy for its whole sign code, the exception rests on timing and size, not on what the sign says (Sec. 5-2025, Sec. 5-2029).