Lynchburg, VA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Political signs sit outside Lynchburg's general sign-permit system: Sec. 10 defines a political sign as a temporary sign promoting a candidate for governmental office or a position on a ballot question, and allows one to go up in any zoning district in the city as long as the property owner has approved its placement on that lot. The ordinance draws the same lines that apply to Lynchburg's separate opinion-sign category under Sec. 11: neither type may be attached to a utility pole or a traffic control sign, and neither may be planted within the public right-of-way along a street.

Where political signs diverge from opinion signs is the removal clock. Sec. 10 requires the sign to come down within three days after the election it relates to, and makes the property owner on whose lot the sign stood responsible for removing it, not the campaign or candidate who placed it. Because political signs are exempt from the sign-permit requirement in Sec. 6 and from the district area caps that apply to commercial and identification signs, the City does not review or limit their number or size the way it does storefront or development-identification signage; the only substantive limits are the placement restrictions and the three-day removal deadline.

Enforcement runs through the same Zoning Administrator and Sec. 2-102 violation process used for the rest of the sign ordinance, so a sign left up past the three-day deadline, or found on a utility pole or within the right-of-way, can draw a written notice of violation.