Framingham, MA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)
Key Facts
- Billboards
- Prohibited citywide, no district exception
- Digital/changing signs
- Flashing, animated, changing faces banned
- Enforcement
- Building Commissioner, City of Framingham
- Penalty
- $300 per day, noncriminal, after notice
- Cure period
- 30 days to correct before fine issues
- Court referral
- After 75 total days uncorrected
Summary
In the City of Framingham, billboards are flatly prohibited and so is any flashing, rotating, animated, moving or changing sign face, a category the sign ordinance extends to digital and electronic message displays and mobile changing billboards. City Code §§ 373-6D and 373-6H place both bans in the same list of prohibited sign types, enforced citywide by the Building Commissioner regardless of zoning district.
D. Billboards. ... H. Flashing/rotating, animated, moving or changing signs, including parked mobile changing signs and billboards. See regulations, § 373-9L, for one exception.
Full Breakdown
The Code of the City of Framingham lists billboards among prohibited signs at § 373-6D, with no district exception. § 373-6H separately prohibits flashing, rotating, animated, moving or changing signs, expressly including parked mobile changing signs and billboards, so an electronic message center or digital billboard face falls under this ban even where the structure itself might otherwise be an allowed freestanding or wall sign. Changeable copy signs carry their own general prohibition at § 373-6F, but the ordinance carves out five narrow uses: institutional or civic signs, gasoline price pods, movie theater marquees, drive-thru car washes and fast-food restaurants, and restaurants generally.
None of those exceptions reach a commercial billboard or a stand-alone digital advertising sign. A cross-reference at § 373-6H points to § 373-9L for one exception to the changing-sign ban, though the current numbering of § 373-9 runs the list of specific sign regulations from banner signs through vertical pole flags, with time and temperature signs the only device the chapter treats as continuously changing. Anyone proposing an off-premises advertising structure or an LED display board should read § 373-9 in full alongside the Table of Uses in Chapter 435, Zoning, before filing any sign permit application with the Building Department, since both chapters independently bar the same structure.
Violations & Fines
The Building Commissioner enforces Chapter 373 as the designated authority under § 373-13A. An illegal sign that can be removed quickly, such as a temporary banner, draws a $300-per-day noncriminal penalty after 24 hours' notice under § 373-13B. A permanent sign violation, which covers an unlawfully installed billboard, gets a written notice with 30 days to cure; if uncorrected, the Building Commissioner may issue the same $300-per-day fine and, after 75 total days, refer the matter to Framingham District Court under § 373-13C.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I install a digital billboard in Framingham?
Are there any exceptions for changing electronic displays?
What happens if someone puts up an illegal digital sign?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Framingham
Compare Framingham to another location·View the Massachusetts sign regulations overview
See something wrong?
Help us keep this page accurate. If you notice an error or outdated information, let us know.