Will Westford Voters replace the Sign Bylaw?

At the Special Town Meeting Monday, October 21st, an entirely new sign bylaw will be presented to the voters of Westford to replace the existing sign regulations (Article 17).

The primary motivations include addressing development and sign types not mentioned in the current bylaw, clarifying sign requirements and streamlining the approval process to save time for applicants and town resources.

Last spring, the Planning Board established the Sign Bylaw Review Committee to evaluate six specific sections of the draft bylaw and present recommendations to the board. 

The SBRC is made up of residents, business owners, a retired town administrator and members of the town’s Economic Development Committee, League of Women Voters, and Board of Selectmen. Planning Board members and staff attended as non-voting members and advisors.

We met weekly to discuss and decide a myriad of questions.  How to balance the desires of business owners with the aesthetics of preserving the Westford character -- to balance advertising with visual overload? What should the maximum size be for a wall sign? How many sandwich boards (“temporary” or “portable” signs in the wording of the bylaw) for each business and how big should they be? Should every business to have a pole sign at the curb when businesses now have to apply to the Planning Board or Selectmen and make their case that such a sign is necessary?  We reviewed industry model bylaws and the bylaws of neighboring towns for ideas that might be tailored for Westford.

The committee also struggled with the questions of whether every business in a Commercial Zone gets a sign, or if each building gets one sign, or should there be just one sign per buildable lot, and what is the bylaw definition of a buildable lot.

The bylaw to be voted on at Town Meeting reflects the decisions made by the Planning Board based on our recommendations and other input from the public hearings.

Now voters need to review the proposed bylaw and decide if this is what you want for Westford. The document is available at the Permitting Department upstairs at Town Hall, or on the Town web site at www.westfordma.gov/signbylaw.

Please attend the town meeting at Abbot School on Monday evening at 7:30. You must make the final decision.

Sincerely,
Sign Bylaw Review Committee

Paul Fassbender, Chair
Eli Demetri, Economic Development Committee  
Tom Barry & Steve Cannellos, EDC Alternates
Valerie Wormell, Selectman
Madonna McKenzie
Chauncey Chu
Becky Bronson, Tranquility Yoga
Lynn Cohen