Martin County, FL Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Martin County's sign ordinance treats political signs as non-commercial temporary signs under Article 4, Division 16 of the Land Development Regulations. On private property, LDR Sec. 9 lists non-commercial signs among the categories exempt from needing a sign permit, and Sec. 694, the ordinance's content-neutrality provision, guarantees that any sign otherwise allowed under the code may carry a political or other non-commercial message instead of a commercial one, with no permitting decision based on the viewpoint expressed. The moment a political sign moves onto public land, the rules tighten.

LDR Sec. B is explicit: no temporary sign, commercial or non-commercial, may be placed on any public right-of-way or public property without the written permission of the Building Director. That includes the grassy strips and medians along county roads that campaigns commonly use, since those areas sit within the public right-of-way. The Building Director retains authority to remove and dispose of snipe signs or any other unlawful sign under this section, and under Sec. 1 the county can summarily remove unlawfully placed signs, hold them for 20 days upon payment of a fine or administrative fee, and dispose of them if unclaimed.

Even where a political sign is permitted, Sec. D lets the Building Director require it be relocated if it creates or risks a traffic obstruction. Political signs remain subject to the ordinance's general safety rule at Sec. E, which bars any sign placement that obstructs the vision of a driver or creates a hazard to pedestrians, bicyclists or vehicular traffic.