Haverhill, MA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Chapter 222, Article IV, Projections and Encroachments on Public Ways, governs anything a property owner or organization wants to hang over a City street. Section 222-19 opens by letting the City Council issue revocable written permits for commercial signs, awnings, marquees and similar structures that project into or over a public way, and for stepping stones, bicycle racks and merchandise placed on a way. Subsection C then carves political banners out of that permitting system entirely: no political banner may be erected or maintained across a street or way, with no application, fee, or Council approval process offered as an alternative.

The section heading itself, 'Permit required; political banners prohibited,' signals that this is a flat ban rather than a licensing scheme, distinguishing it from the general encroachment permits available under § 222-19(A) and (B) and the $50 application fee set in § 222-20. Chapter 213, Signs, cross-references Article IV for anything encroaching on a public way, but does not create a separate political-sign carve-out of its own; the operative prohibition lives in § 222-19(C). Because the ban is written into the streets and sidewalks chapter rather than the zoning code, it applies specifically to banners strung across the public right-of-way, not to yard signs or window signs on private property, which fall under Chapter 255, Zoning, instead.