Knoxville, TN Sign Regulations: Window Signs (2026)

Article 13 of Knoxville's Appendix B zoning code, adopted under Ordinance O-87-2020 and amended by Ordinance O-109-2020, sets a comprehensive sign scheme: § 13.1 states the purpose is to "create a legal framework for a comprehensive and balanced system of sign regulation," while § 13.2 lists signs prohibited citywide (flashing lights, roof signs, billboards, portable signs) and § 13.4 lists signs that need no permit. Section 13.3, "Signs and Other Items Exempt From Sign Regulations," carves out 30 categories, lettered A through DD, that fall outside the Article's coverage entirely, "unless prohibited elsewhere in these regulations" and "subject to other applicable laws and regulations." Item DD, added by Ordinance O-109-2020, § 1, adopted June 30, 2020, reads simply: "Window signs." That single line means a sign placed inside a storefront window carries no citywide sign-area cap, no permit requirement, and no illumination standard under Article 13.

The Article 2.3 definitions section still frames what qualifies: a "Window Sign" is "a type of attached sign placed within a window facing the street or thoroughfare... for the purpose of advertising products, services or the business," which "may not obscure the view of the interior of the building." The Director of Plans Review and Building Inspections issues sign permits and conducts compliance inspections under § 14.5.D-E, but a window sign meeting the definition needs neither. This citywide exemption is not universal: specific overlay and reuse standards impose their own caps where the city has chosen to regulate window signs locally, such as the Knoxville South Waterfront district's 10-percent-of-window-area limit and the neighborhood commercial reuse standard's 20-percent cap. Absent such an overlay, a downtown or neighborhood retailer covering an entire storefront window with signage is not violating Article 13.