Wayne County, NC Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Wayne County Zoning Ordinance § 91(p) places political campaign signs on the county's list of signs allowed in any district without a sign permit, so a candidate or supporter does not have to apply to the Planning Department to post one. The exemption comes with three conditions: the sign must be nonilluminated, it cannot be displayed sooner than 60 days before an election, and it has to be removed no later than 14 days after the election. The ordinance also caps the total size per parcel at 32 square feet and six feet in height, a limit that applies to the combined area of however many campaign signs sit on a single lot rather than to each sign individually.

Political signs share Article IX's general placement rules with every other exempt sign: they must stay outside the public right-of-way and any sight-distance triangle under § 90, and § 97 bars advertising or identification signage within ten feet of a street right-of-way except where public safety requires an exception. Because political signs sit under the no-permit list in § 91 rather than the permitted-sign track in §§ 92 through 95, they are not counted against a property's other sign allowances.