Political signs: Political election individual candidate signs are permitted to be displayed 60 days prior to an election and must be removed 7 days after an election. No sign shall be placed so as to obstruct or interfere with traffic visibility. Signs that are placed in right of way, on public property, create a nuisance or a traffic hazard will be removed without notice by the Department of Community Development. A permit is not required for individual political candidate signs meeting the placement and having a maximum size of 32 square feet.

The purpose of the following requirements for signs is to promote general safety and control the number, size and location of signs to reduce clutter and encourage installation of signs that are readable. The City of Yankton’s general objective by adopting a Sign Ordinance is to promote health, safety and welfare and to achieve the following:

• Safety: To promote the safety of persons and property by discouraging signs that create a hazard due to collapse, fire, collision, decay or abandonment and to regulate signs that create traffic hazards by confusing or distracting motorists by impairing the driver’s ability to see pedestrians, obstacles or other vehicles, or to see and interpret any official traffic sign, signal or device.
• Communication Efficiency: To promote the efficient transfer of information so that businesses and services may identify themselves. It is the objective of the sign ordinance that no person or group is arbitrarily denied the use of the sight line from public right-of-ways for communication purposes.
• Landscape quality and preservation: To protect the public welfare and to enhance the appearance and economic value of the landscape by providing signs that do not create a nuisance to persons using public right-of-ways and do not constitute a nuisance to adjacent property by their brightness, size, height or movement.

This pamphlet is a general informational guide and does not represent the City of Yankton’s Ordinance in its entirety. The complete publication of Yankton’s Code of Ordinances is on file at the Department of Community Development.