Revere, MA Outdoor Lighting: Billboard Lighting (2026)

Section 17.36.035, titled 'Digital sign, illuminated,' states in full that no digital sign shall be illuminated between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and sunrise. The rule was adopted May 7, 2018 by City Council Order 18-075, the same ordinance that created the city's digital-sign permitting scheme in Section 17.36.030. Because digital signs, and any digital billboard converted under Section 17.36.120, are already confined to the Highway Business and Transit Economic Development districts and subject to distance buffers from homes, schools and parks, the overnight curfew is a second layer of control: even a lawfully sited, special-permit digital sign must go dark for the same hours nightly, year round, protecting nearby residential areas from all-night glare and light spill.

Billboards more broadly, including any billboard bearing a digital face, must also meet a separate structural upkeep duty under Section 17.36.130, which requires the owner to ensure the billboard is kept clean, safe and sanitary and to have a Massachusetts-licensed, independent engineer inspect it at least once every year, with results sent to the Revere building inspector. The building inspector, who issues and can revoke sign permits under Chapter 17.48, is the official who enforces both the lighting curfew and the annual inspection duty.