Tuscaloosa, AL Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Sec. 18-29, part of the article governing conduct in Tuscaloosa's public parks, makes it unlawful for any person in a park to engage in political advertising by posted sign or loudspeaker except under a duly authorized permit for the activity. The same subsection also bars announcing, advertising, or calling public attention to any article or service for sale or hire without a permit, treating political advertising as one branch of a broader permit-only advertising rule inside parks. Subsection (3) goes further and separately prohibits pasting, gluing, tacking, or otherwise posting any sign, placard, advertisement, or inscription, or erecting any sign, on public park land or on the highways or roads adjacent to a park, without a permit exception for that clause.

Because Sec. 18-29 sits inside Article II, Conduct in Public Parks, the political-sign restriction applies only to the roughly two dozen parks and recreation areas the city dedicates under Sec. 18-2, plus any other city-owned land used for park purposes under Sec. 18-20's definition of 'park'; it does not reach yard signs on private property or public rights-of-way outside a park. Permits for park activity, including a request to display political signage or use a loudspeaker, run through the same director-issued permit process set out in Sec. 18-23(d), which requires a written application and lets the director grant, deny, or condition the permit, with a denied applicant able to appeal to the county park and recreation authority within seven days.