Chicopee, MA Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

Chapter 244 of the Code of the City of Chicopee was adopted by the Board of Aldermen (now City Council) on 12-18-2007 as Ord. No. 07-84, with an effective date of 3-31-2008. It covers every tag sale, cellar sale, garage sale, lawn sale, rummage sale, attic sale, yard sale and estate sale, defined in § 244-1 as the sale of new or used items offered for sale, barter, or trade to the general public when conducted in whole or in part in a residential zone.

The sign rule is § 244-4: no notices, advertising signs or directional signs are to be attached to utility poles or street signs, and signs must be removed at the end of the seventy-two-hour period. The rule names notices as well as signs, so a flyer and a printed arrow are covered alike, and it names both utility poles and street signs as off limits.

The removal deadline is tied to the sale clock in § 244-2. A sale is held for no more than a continuous seventy-two-hour period, sale hours are limited to 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and all items for sale must be removed at the conclusion of the period and secured in the owner's primary residence. A seller in Chicopee therefore collects every sign at the same moment the sale ends.

Frequency is capped by § 244-3. A sale can be conducted only from the owner's primary residence or from the primary location of the nonprofit organization, and no more than three tag sales can be conducted from the same residence per calendar year in a residential zone. The code states that more than three tag sales would violate the Zoning Ordinance, and its editor's note points to Chapter 275.

Enforcement belongs to the Building Inspector's office acting as the Zoning office under § 244-5. Separately, § 260-12 of the traffic chapter makes it unlawful to display in view of any street an unofficial sign that imitates an official traffic sign or hides an official sign or signal from view, and it lets the Chief of Police remove such a sign without notice.