Orem, UT Sign Regulations: Window Signs (2026)

Section 14-3-3 of the Orem City Code, Specific Regulations by Sign Type, sets window signs apart from every other sign category covered in that section by exempting them from the City's sign permit requirement altogether: a business can install, change, or remove window signage without applying to Development Services first. The tradeoff is a hard coverage ceiling. Window signs, whether painted, decaled, or hung just inside the glass, cannot occupy more than 80 percent of the total transparent area of the window they are displayed on, calculated window by window rather than as a storefront average, so a business cannot cover one window completely by leaving another bare.

The permission is also zone-limited: window signs are only a permitted sign type in the C1, C2, and C3 commercial zones, the M1 and M2 manufacturing zones, the HS zone, the BP business park zone, commercial Planned Development zones, and the State Street District zones; the code does not list window signs as permitted in residential or open space zones, which matters for any home occupation that wants to advertise through a front window. Because no permit is issued, the City typically only becomes aware of a coverage violation through a complaint or a code enforcement sweep of a commercial corridor, at which point the 80 percent threshold is measured against the glass's actual transparent area rather than the full window frame.