Owensboro, KY Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

The joint Owensboro-Daviess County Zoning Ordinance defines a 'political sign' in Appendix F Section 9-2 as 'a temporary sign that contains a message supporting the candidacy for office or urging action on matters on the ballot of an upcoming election or referendum,' and the same definition classifies political signs as on-premises signs for regulatory purposes rather than off-premises signs, which face far tighter area and location limits. That classification carries two practical exemptions. Section 9-3(d)(1) limits most temporary signs, other than building signs, to two per individual lot and forty square feet in area, but it expressly excepts 'construction, real estate, political signs, civic and church signs' from that two-sign cap.

Section 9-5(f)(6) applies a separate limit, a hundred-twenty-day display period in a calendar year, to temporary signs in residential, manufactured-housing-park and professional zones, but that section also names 'construction, political and real estate signs' as excluded from the count. Political signs still must sit within the property boundary at least ten feet back from the curb or pavement under Section 9-3(d)(1) and can never be placed on the public right-of-way, and they remain subject to the article's general lighting, safety and maintenance provisions in Section 9-3.

Because political signs are treated as on-premises signs rather than off-premises billboards, they escape the permit requirement in Section 9-3(c), which applies mainly to off-premises signs and larger electrical or ten-square-foot-plus permanent on-premises signs.