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Signs Bylaw 2022 Signs Bylaw 2022

The Signs Bylaw 2022 is a jointly developed Auckland Transport and Auckland Council bylaw, which covers all aspects of sign types and placement, including election signs.

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About the Signs Bylaw 2022

Download the Signs Bylaw 2022 (PDF 1.83MB)

This consolidated bylaw replaced Auckland Council’s Signage Bylaw 2015, our Signage Bylaw 2015, and our Election Signs Bylaw 2013. This Bylaw provides a single, integrated source of information and guidance for all aspects of signs.

It provides regionally consistent rules about signs on both private and public land, referring to their:

  • type
  • location
  • number
  • size.

Contents of the Signs Bylaw 2022

This bylaw contains:

  • specific rules about free-standing, verandah, wall-mounted, window, portable, stencil, poster, banner, real estate, event, election and vehicle signs
  • special rules for signs in major recreational facility zones and open space zones, in addition to signs about commercial sexual services.

This bylaw also contains general rules that apply to all signs about:

  • illumination
  • changeable messages
  • public safety
  • nuisance
  • movement of traffic and vessels.

This bylaw does not cover:

  • signs not visible from a council-controlled public place, motorway, or state highway
  • signs on or over a motorway or state highway
  • billboards covered under the Auckland Unitary Plan
  • traffic control devices
  • certain instructional, regulatory, public wayfinding, and educational signs.

Read on for more information on the provisions and locations around election signs. Clause 17 of the Signs Bylaw outlines the provisions related to election signs.

Enforcement of the Signs Bylaw 2022

Auckland Council is currently delegated to administer and enforce this Bylaw. For general enquiries or to request a service related to this Bylaw, please contact Auckland Council.

To report an infringement or a problem (e.g. a sign posing a danger to the public or causing a nuisance) or file a complaint regarding this Bylaw, please lodge a complaint about a billboard or sign.

About election signs

An election sign is any sign that:

  • may reasonably be regarded as encouraging or persuading a person to vote or not vote or a candidate, party, type of candidate or party, or in a particular way, and
  • is associated with an election, by-election, poll or referendum:
    • in the Electoral Act 1993, Local Electoral Act 2001, or any legislation that enables a referendum, or
    • relating to an energy trust which owns shares in a public utility company for the benefit of its beneficiaries in Auckland.

Time period for election signs

Election signs on private land, on council-controlled public places specified for election signs or on vehicles can only be displayed in the 9-week period prior to the polling day of that election. Election signs on displayed legally in other locations (such as a commercial billboard) may be displayed outside that time period in compliance with the normal rules for that billboard.

A Local Board may impose further restrictions on the time period they will allow election signs to be displayed in a park or reserve under their control for local government elections. Currently, the Ōrākei Local Board only permits the display of election signs for 4 weeks in the council-controlled public places specified for election signs in their parks and reserves during local government elections. During central government elections the standard 9 weeks applies.

Council-controlled public places for the display of election signs

The bylaw does not contain a list of public sites for the display of election signs, but allows for such places to be specified in a control made under the bylaw. Such controls are passed as a bylaw resolution.

Because the public sites for the display of election signs are either on or visible from roads, local government legislation states that the power to pass these resolutions is held by us, not Auckland Council. The power is delegated to AT’s Traffic Control Committee.

This use of the resolution process allows for flexibility to have additional sites added (or, if necessary, sites removed from the list) without the need to modify the bylaw. These sites are approved for election signs:

List of sites for v-shaped election signs

Certain sites have been identified as suitable for the display of v-shaped election signs. Note that a candidate standing for election for more than one role (councillor, local board member or licensing trust) can have more than one sign on a specified public site, that is, a sign for each candidacy for which the candidate is seeking election.

However, a candidate that advertises their candidacies for more than one role on a v-shaped election sign would be limited to one sign on a specified site and not permitted to have another sign in addition to the v-shaped election sign.

Sites not included on this list must not be used for the display of v-shaped signs.

View list of sites for v-shaped election signs (PDF 17KB)

Protocol for sign installation / removal in closed or potentially closed landfill sites

A number of election sign sites have been identified as being located within closed landfill or potentially closed landfill sites. Sign installation and removal in these areas must be undertaken with caution and the protocol taken into consideration.

View the protocol for sign installation or removal in closed or potentially closed landfill sites (PDF 33KB)

View list of closed or potentially closed landfill sites (PDF 13KB)

For more information

Contact Auckland Transport