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

The definition of TEMPORARY SIGNS in § 174-11(B) lists messages relative to sale, lease, rental or construction of property, garage or yard sales and similar occasional uses, special sales, bazaars, dinners or other events, so a garage sale sign is regulated as a temporary sign. Subsection (C)(1)(i) lists temporary signs among the signs that do not require a permit from the Inspector of Buildings.

Two timing rules apply under subsection (C)(11). A temporary sign has to be removed promptly after the sale, event or reason for the sign message has been concluded, and it cannot be maintained for more than a thirty-day period unless proper sign permits have been obtained. Real estate signs get a separate rule: a sign for the sale, lease, rental or construction of real estate is not subject to the thirty-day limit but comes down promptly once the sale, lease, rental or construction has been effected or completed. Construction signs cannot go up before work begins.

Size and number come from the sign table in subsection (D). A temporary sign in the Residential, Conservation, and Research, Scientific and Professional districts is limited to 6 feet in height, 6 square feet in area and one per lot. In the Business Village and Downtown districts the limits are 10 feet, 15 square feet and one per building. In the Highway Business, Industrial and Industrial Park districts the limits are 10 feet, 25 square feet and one per lot. A municipal, state, federal or private educational institution, or a religious institution within a Residential District, gets 6 feet, 12 square feet and one per lot. Temporary window signs in the Highway Business, Industrial and Industrial Park districts are limited to 25% of the window, paper or posterboard only, and cannot go on a window that already carries a permanent window sign.