Wichita, KS Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Sec. 215(a) declares any 'unauthorized Temporary Sign in the Right-of-Way or on public property which is not supported or held by a person or persons' to be a nuisance, and (b)(2) treats any Temporary Sign placed in the Right-of-Way as both 'an unlawful sign and an abandoned sign' subject to immediate City removal. Because a political sign 'directing attention to a person' is, under (b)(3), 'prima facie evidence that such person has caused the placement,' a candidate is presumed responsible for their own yard signs that end up in the right-of-way.

Subsection (c) creates the election-period carve-out: a sign with an installed height of 30 inches or less and a face under 4 square feet is exempt from the nuisance rule if placed during the 'Election Period' defined at Sec. 045(17) as the 45 days before and 2 days after any election, plus the gap between a primary and general election. Even exempt signs cannot go in center medians, on traffic control devices, on bridges or overpasses, or wherever the City Engineer finds they block sight lines or a sidewalk under the ADA, and every election-period sign 'must be removed from the rights-of-way immediately following such Election Period,' with the property owner and tenant 'jointly and individually liable' for a sign left up too long.

Enforcement runs through Sec. 215(d): the City can remove an unauthorized sign at any time, or give the presumed owner 72 hours' notice via the sign's own contact information before citing it, and can hold any metal or wood sign 6 square feet or larger for 20 days before disposal, recoverable for a $25 service charge. Trained citizen volunteers authorized by the Zoning Administrator may also pull violating signs under (d)(3).