Austin sign permit — is your storefront sign over the limit?

Austin ties the total area of your wall and other non-freestanding signs to your Sign District and your facade. The commercial, expressway corridor and downtown districts allow 20% of the facade area; Neighborhood Commercial (LO, LR, CR, W/LO) and Scenic Roadway allow 10%. Only the first 15 feet of building height counts (§25-10-123(F), -124(D), -128(E)(2), -129(F)(1), -130(F)(1)). The limit is a total for the lot, not for each sign.

Freestanding signs are sized from street frontage: 0.7 sq ft per foot up to 200 sq ft, or 250 sq ft for a multi-tenant sign, in the commercial district; 0.7 sq ft per foot up to 300 sq ft in the expressway corridor (60 sq ft on 86 ft of frontage or less); 0.5 sq ft per foot up to 200 sq ft downtown; 0.3 sq ft per foot up to 100 sq ft in neighborhood commercial; and 0.4 sq ft per foot up to 64 sq ft on a scenic roadway.

The tool above applies those figures once you pick your sign district. Historic district signs go through the historic preservation officer and, where they do not match the guidelines, the Historic Landmark Commission (§25-10-122).

Austin decides your allowance from your Sign District, then runs everything through one portal. Installer registration with the building official is a separate step from the permit (§25-10-231).

Source: City of Austin Development Services (Sign Permits; Development Services fee schedule); Austin Land Development Code Ch. 25-10. Fees and timelines change — confirm current figures with Austin Development Services before filing.

The code defines the trigger: an “activity affecting real property” means “the construction, remodeling, improvement, development, sale, or lease of a building or the land on which the building is located” (§25-10-102(B)(1)). One freestanding or wall sign meeting the requirements below “may be displayed no sooner than 30 days before an activity affecting real property begins and no later than 30 days after that same activity ends” (§25-10-102(B)(2)).

A decoration “such as those which displayed during a holiday season” that would otherwise not be allowed under the chapter may be displayed on a property for no more than 45 consecutive days or 90 days per year.

The copy of §25-10-102 on file stops before subsection (D), so this page states nothing about whatever temporary-sign categories that subsection sets.

A wall sign of the kind that goes up for a sale or a one-off event is allowed where the property contains a commercial use, for not more than 30 days, and at least one of those days must be a day on which a lawfully permitted special event, sale or other activity that does not normally occur on the property is scheduled. The size cap depends on where the sign goes: 96 square feet for a sign attached to a building, or 30 percent of the window area for a sign displayed in a window.

Where the property contains a residential use, a sign for a garage sale, yard sale, neighborhood meeting or similar activity that does not normally occur there may be displayed for no more than seven consecutive days, at least one of which must be a day the lawfully permitted activity is scheduled to occur. This subsection sets no area or height figure.

A freestanding or wall sign for an election to any federal, state or local office representing citizens of the city may go up no sooner than 60 days before the election and must come down no later than 10 days after it. For each premises the total area of these signs may not exceed 36 square feet, no such sign may exceed eight feet in height, and none may have a moving part.

A sign or banner on a site containing a public primary or secondary educational facility may be placed on a lawfully permitted building or fence on that facility's property, and may not be displayed for more than 150 consecutive days.

A banner hung over a street is a separate regime and not one of the temporary on-premise signs above. It lives in Chapter 25-10 Article 9 (Article 8 is special signs), and the chapter's definitions call a street banner "a fabric sign hung over a street maintained by the city." It is also one of the six things §25-10-104(h) allows in the right-of-way.

What it may advertise. The building official may permit a street banner advertising "a noncommercial or nonpolitical event" — a charitable, humanitarian or eleemosynary event; an educational, scholastic or artistic event; a community or public interest activity; or the sale of goods or services in conjunction with an event the proceeds of which will primarily benefit a charitable, humanitarian, scholastic or eleemosynary cause (§25-10-171(a)). Business promotion is not on that list.

The two hard limits. An event or activity "may not be advertised at more than three locations," and a street banner "may not be displayed more than 14 days at one location during a 12 month period" (§25-10-172(a)). The permit is a licence that confers no property right in the street right-of-way, and it may not be assigned or transferred (§25-10-172(b)).

You do not hang it yourself. The Electric Utility Department installs the banner, after the applicant delivers it to the department and the department verifies that the building official has approved the permit and that the banner complies with street banner specifications (§25-10-174(a)). Any improvement or accession installed at a display location becomes the department's property (§25-10-174(b), and §25-10-173(a)(6) requires the applicant to agree to that in writing). A location not previously approved carries an evaluation fee with the application, plus a non-refundable fee reimbursing the City's labour, materials and equipment to establish the location (§25-10-171(d)). The building official may suspend or revoke the permit for a violation of the code, the permit conditions or other law (§25-10-171(e)). A banner may be removed if it is displayed after the permit expires, creates a public safety hazard, went up in the right-of-way without a permit, or is illegal — and it may be destroyed after the tenth day following expiry if the permittee does not reclaim it, or immediately where it was unpermitted or illegal (§25-10-175).

§25-10-3(A) provides that a person “may not install, move, structurally alter, structurally repair, maintain, or use a sign except in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and other applicable Code provisions.” (B) adds that the primary beneficiary of a sign installed, moved, altered, repaired, maintained or used in violation of the Code “is presumed to have authorized” that violation — the business the sign advertises, not only whoever bolted it up. And (C) provides that a person who violates (A) or (B) “commits an offense.” A permit-free temporary sign that breaks a limit above is still a violation, and the presumption points at the beneficiary.

§25-10-103 lists signs prohibited in all sign districts, and it opens with a condition that has to travel with the list: “Unless the accountable official determines that the sign is a nonconforming sign, the following signs are prohibited.” An existing sign the official treats as nonconforming is handled under that status rather than by this list.

• An off-premise sign, unless the sign is authorized by another provision of the chapter. §25-10-103(1)
• A sign placed on a vehicle or trailer that is parked or located for the primary purpose of displaying the sign. §25-10-103(2)
• A festoon, including tinsel, strings of ribbon, small commercial flags, streamers, and pinwheels. §25-10-103(3)
• A sign not permanently affixed to a building, structure, or the ground that is designed or installed so it can be moved or relocated without any structural or support changes — excluding a sidewalk sign described in §25-10-153 (Sidewalk Sign In Downtown Sign District). §25-10-103(4)
• A tethered, pilotless balloon or other gas-filled device used as a sign. §25-10-103(5)
• A sign that uses an intermittent or flashing light source to attract attention — excluding an electronically controlled changeable-copy sign. §25-10-103(6)
• A mobile billboard within the City’s full-purpose jurisdiction. §25-10-103(7)

Public land is its own prohibition. §25-10-104(A) provides that a person “may not cause or authorize a sign to be installed, used, or maintained on or over public right-of-way or other public property, including any public easement or other public encumbrance over private property, except as authorized by this chapter.”

What the right-of-way prohibition actually costs. §25-10-104 bars anyone from causing or authorizing a sign on or over public right-of-way or other public property, including a public easement over private property, except as the chapter allows. It presumes the sign's primary beneficiary authorized it, and no culpable mental state is required for conviction. The minimum fines are $50 for a first conviction, $200 for a second within any 24-month period and $400 for a third or later within that period; all fines assessed in one midnight-to-midnight day count as a single conviction. The offender must remove the sign, and failing to remove it within 48 hours of written notice from an authorized City representative adds a civil penalty of $200 per day for every day or part of a day it stays up. The City may remove it with no notice to the owner, either before removal or before the sign is disposed of, and a sign left in the right-of-way is presumed abandoned. Six things are exempt from the prohibition: a sidewalk sign, a projecting sign in the downtown sign district, a street banner, a wall sign mounted flat against a building that extends no more than 18 inches from the facade into the right-of-way, a sign installed by a governmental agency for a governmental purpose, and a sign complying with §25-10-105.

On the one exception named in the list: §25-10-153 provides that a sidewalk sign "is permitted in accordance with the requirements of this section" and "may be installed without a permit, but must comply with the requirements of this subsection." Those requirements are specific. The sign must stand on a sidewalk at least 10 feet wide, directly in front of a building that is not set back from the street right-of-way where the sign sits in the right-of-way, and no closer than 20 feet to a driveway or pedestrian crosswalk. It must not narrow the sidewalk to less than 6 feet, must not obstruct the line of sight for oncoming traffic, must not stand more than four feet high, and must not be wider than one-third the sidewalk width or 30 inches, whichever is less. It may be displayed only during the hours the business it advertises is open, and a business may not use more than one. On request the owner or operator must show the building official proof of an insurance policy protecting the City under §25-10-235 and of indemnification. No City Council license agreement is required for a sidewalk sign.

Source: Austin City Code, Title 25, Chapter 25-10 — §25-10-103, §25-10-104 (signs prohibited in public easements and right-of-way) and §25-10-153 (sidewalk signs). The fines and the six right-of-way exceptions in §25-10-104, and the sidewalk-sign requirements in §25-10-153(b), are reproduced in full.