Proposed Zoning Changes 2018

There are proposed Zoning Changes which will be on the ballot at the Town Election on March 13, 2018.

The changes involve Article V, Section K of the Zoning Ordinance and relates to signs.  The proposed changes can be found HERE.

Information on Sign Regulation Changes

Why are we amending the towns sign regulations?

A few years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that a town cannot regulate the message on signs on private property.  Towns can, however, regulate other aspects of signs such as the number of signs, materials they are constructed from, etc.  In other words, requiring that persons apply for a sign permit is fine as long as we don’t ask about the message on the sign.  Our current sign regulations violated those rules. 

The changes to the sign regulations being voted on at Town Meeting are intended to bring our sign regulations on private property into conformance with the court rulings.  The intent of these changes is to replicate our current policies on number of signs, materials, etc. without asking an applicant to specify the message on the sign.  The heart of new regulations is the table by type of property that specifies the number of permanent and temporary signs that are allowed as well as the size limits.  Read the table and you will have a fairly good idea of the nature of these changes. The rules also specify the types and numbers of directional signs that will be allowed on public rights of way.  They have not changed from the existing rules.