Brockton, MA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Section 27-70 states flatly that political or campaign signs on behalf of candidates or ballot measures 'must conform with section 27-66,' the article's rule for non-accessory signs, meaning signs advertising something other than the business on whose lot the sign sits. Read on its own, § 27-66 would require a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, confine such signs to the C-2, I-2 and I-3 zones, keep them at least 500 feet from any residential zone, school, park, playground, library, church or hospital, at least 660 feet from a limited-access highway, at least 150 feet from a street intersection, at least 500 feet from any other non-accessory sign on the same street, and cap the sign area at 300 square feet.

But the ordinance's general sign-control article carves out a specific exception for election notices. Section 27-65(13) treats portable and free-standing framework signs as generally requiring a Zoning Board of Appeals special permit, except that signs 'providing notice of any municipal, state, or federal election...shall be allowed as of right for a period of twenty-one (21) days preceding such election,' with no permit needed at all. In practice, that exception is what governs the yard and stake-mounted signs residents and candidates put up before Election Day; the § 27-66 billboard standard applies to larger, off-premises campaign advertising structures rather than ordinary lawn signs.