Monterey, CA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Monterey City Code Chapter 31, Section 31-3(C) and Table 31-1 exempt 'Temporary Private Party Ground-Mounted Signs on Private Property' displaying a noncommercial message, expressly including ideological, religious or political messages, from the Chapter's Sign Permit requirement. The exemption is not unlimited: each individual sign is capped at 16 square feet, the cumulative total area of all such signs on one property cannot exceed 80 square feet, and individual signs must be spaced at least 10 feet apart from each other. Because the exemption is keyed to message content being noncommercial rather than to the specific subject of politics, Section 31-3(E) reinforces the same result from the other direction: subject to the property owner's consent, a noncommercial message of any type, including a political one, may be substituted for all or part of the message on any sign already allowed under the Chapter without any additional approval or permitting, and the substituted sign remains subject to the same size, height and other structural rules that applied to the original message.

A sign exceeding these limits is not exempt and must go through the ordinary Sign Permit process under Section 31-5, reviewed administratively by City Planning staff for minor signs or by the Planning Commission for major signs, with appeals proceeding under Section 38-203 et seq. 3, with the property owner responsible for removal regardless of whether the City sends notice.