Everett, MA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Section 12A-63, Illumination, sits in Chapter 12A, Signs and Billboards, of the Everett Revised Ordinances and applies without any carve-out for billboards. Subsection (a) has two rules. First, flashing lights or simulations of traffic signals or emergency vehicle lights shall not be used. Second, red and green colored lights shall not be used when so placed that they could obscure or hazard the clear vision of traffic control signals viewed from any point on an approaching public way, or if in the opinion of the Building Inspector such light would constitute a hazard. That last clause gives the Building Inspector, who enforces the chapter under Section 12A-39, discretion to find a hazard.

Subsection (b) governs aimed lighting: spotlights or floodlights shall not be aimed so that any portion of the main beam can be seen from a public way. A billboard lit from below or above by floodlights therefore has to be aimed so the beam stays off the road.

Other sections in the same chapter add to the lighting picture. Section 12A-64(c) prohibits signs with blinking, flashing or fluttering lights or other illuminated devices that have a changing light intensity, brightness or color. For on-premise signs, Section 12A-54(l) says signs shall be lighted only by any continuous light, except that a warning sign or a sign illuminated to show time and temperature can have intermittent illumination, and signs shall remain stationary. Billboards and off-premise signs also face the size and distance limits of Section 12A-65 and need a permit from the Outdoor Advertising Board of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under subsection (i). This page covers the City of Everett, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, not Everett, Washington.