Worcester, MA Sidewalk & Pedestrian Rules: Encroachment Permits (2026)

Chapter Twelve, Section 21, "Encroachments," is built mostly as a list of things you cannot do to or over a Worcester street, with one built-in application step. Subsection (f) requires anyone erecting a fence or building next to a street or public ground to first have the commissioner of public works and parks ascertain the property's bounds, an application-based check meant to stop private construction from creeping into the public way before it happens.

The rest of Section 21 backs that up with specific bans: subsection (a) bars fences, porches, platforms or doorsteps that extend into a street, and bars hoisting material over a street in a manner the chief of police deems unsafe until it is done safely; subsection (b) prohibits leaving a cellar door or doorway to a sidewalk or street open when not in use, or after twilight without a light; subsection (c) requires any uncovered cellar, vault, cistern or well near a street to be fenced, curbed or guarded; subsection (d) bars gates from swinging into the street; subsection (e) allows awnings or shades over a street or sidewalk only if securely supported and at least seven feet above the surface; and subsection (h) bars structures or shelters extending into a street outright, with a narrow carve-out letting the commissioner license a Worcester Regional Transit Authority bus shelter on the sidewalk.

Together these provisions mean a private encroachment onto or over a Worcester street or sidewalk is either flatly prohibited, or, in the fence-and-building case, permitted only after the commissioner signs off on the boundary application.