Damien Jacob (All-New)

The last substantial amendments to the City of Worcester’s outdoor-sign ordinance date back to 1963. In the last two decades alone, technology has changed the way we do business and communicate, and the use of digital and electronic signs and billboards has become more popular. According to City Manager Mike O’Brien, Worcester’s proposed outdoor-sign ordinance seeks to accomplish the following:

• Address rapidly changing technologies such as digital and electronic signs and billboards as well as temporary signs and billboards
• Promote safety along city sidewalks, streets and highways
• Effectively regulate proper maintenance of signs
• Define types and uses of signs with explicit regulations specific to appropriate number, placement, scale, and illumination

The following highlights some of the proposed amendments to Worcester’s outdoor-sign ordinance:

• Establish standards for signs with digital display, including regulation of message transitions, brightness, spacing, and sign, and differentiate between signs with digital display and motion signs
• Suggest the creation of three sign-overlay districts, prohibit certain types of non-accessory signs (that is, billboards), and more strictly regulate free-standing and roof signs in two of the three overlay districts, which are Union Station View Corridor, Blackstone Canal District, and Blackstone River Parkway
• Allow for a greater number of and larger size of certain sign types by granting a special permit as opposed to variance approval, and establish a special-permit process that provides flexibility for large, commercial developments
• Prohibit temporary signs on utility poles and Dumpster enclosures, and remove the exemption for temporary window signs

In an all-new episode, Steve D'Agostino interviews Damien Jacob of Worcester Sign Company about Worcester’s controversial outdoor-sign ordinance.