Tonawanda, NY Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Chapter 215's sign article, § 215-34.13, exempts several sign types from Tonawanda's zoning permit requirement, including lawn signs allowed on any lot without a permit provided listed conditions are met. The Town Board's specific standards limit each lawn sign, political or otherwise, to a maximum height of three feet and a face area of six square feet, with the combined area of every sign on the lot capped at 16 square feet. None may be illuminated, and under the general lawn-sign duration rule a sign cannot stay up for more than 60 days within any rolling 180-day period.

Political signs carry one further, sign-specific deadline: subsection E(5) requires that all signs be removed within 10 days after the close of the election, regardless of how long the general display window would otherwise allow. Because political lawn signs fall under the permit-exempt list, a resident or campaign does not file a sign permit application before posting one, but the exemption is conditional, not blanket: the code's introductory paragraph to § 215-34.13 states that exempt signs must conform to all other requirements of the article or may be subject to removal by the Code Enforcement Officer.

That means a political sign that is oversized, illuminated, left up past the ten-day post-election deadline, or otherwise noncompliant loses its exempt status and becomes an enforcement target like any unpermitted sign elsewhere in the Zoning Law. The rule applies town-wide, on any lot, and is not limited to a particular zoning district.