Somerville, MA Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

8 regulate commercial signage on buildings and lots, but home occupations get separate treatment inside the city's designated historic districts. Code § 7-21(c)(4) lists the exterior features the Historic Preservation Commission does not review, and a home occupation sign is one of them, but only if it meets the ordinance's exact size and quantity limits: signs of one foot square or less in connection with a customary home occupation or professional use, with only one such sign displayed per residence, and if illuminated, illuminated only indirectly.

The same subsection separately allows one nonresidential-use sign per building up to 12 square feet, appropriately located and consisting of letters, symbols or a trademark compatible with the area's character, again only if indirectly illuminated; that larger allowance covers the building's nonresidential use generally, not the home occupation exemption itself. Miss either limit, put up more than one home occupation sign, or illuminate it directly, and the sign no longer qualifies for the exclusion: under § 7-21(b), the resident must apply to the Historic Preservation Commission for a certificate of appropriateness, certificate of nonapplicability, or certificate of hardship before installing it, and under § 7-21(a) inspectional services cannot issue the underlying building permit until that certificate is on file. 8 commercial-sign rules repeat this same numeric cap for home occupation signage specifically.