Meriden, CT Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Meriden Code § 213-35G(1)(p) governs signage for Planned Executive Office Development (PEOD) districts, the zoning classification the City uses along its interstate corridors. The base rule allows only one freestanding identification sign for the whole PEOD development, capped at 40 square feet and eight feet in height, plus one freestanding sign per business lot under the same size and height limits, and directional signs up to four square feet and four feet tall. Subsection [4], added by ordinance amendment on August 23, 2018, adds a highway-specific allowance: on a site abutting Interstate 91, Route 15 or Interstate 691, a building may carry two additional wall signs on the side facing the public parking lot with Planning Commission approval, plus two more additional wall signs on the side facing the highway itself, which require both Planning Commission and Connecticut Department of Transportation sign-off.

Every one of those additional signs must be a flush wall sign, none may sit on the roof or project above the top of the wall where it is mounted, and each is capped at 40 square feet and must be set horizontally on the same reading plane as its neighbors. Illumination is allowed only if confined or directed onto the sign face itself, such as halo lighting; flashing, rotating, intermittent, neon or other exposed illumination, including bare incandescent, LED or fluorescent bulbs, is barred outright.

Because approval runs through the Planning Commission (and DOT for highway-facing faces) rather than a staff sign permit, an applicant must request it as part of, or an amendment to, the PEOD site plan process under § 213-35.