MASSACHUSETTS FEDERATION OF PLANNING
boards
ti°n of Women’s Clubs, tlie Massachusetts Stnt* pi ber of Commerce, tbe Association of Western cliusetts Chambers of Commerce and the^ Chamber ^ Commerce of Cape Cod, whose ^resident a? ■ ,
^OAX1(js’took a leading part in presenting dfe case to the legislators.	e
Other men for whose aid special acknowledgements are due are lion. Robert Walcott of Cambridge chairman of the bill board committees of the Civic League and Boston Chamber of Commerce, State Treasurer James Jackson, Mr. Ralph S. Bauer, member of tbe Lynn Chamber of Commerce and of the Metropolitan District Planning Commission, Mr. Louis A. Coolidge of Milton and President Joseph Lee of the Civic League. In the Senate, where the opposition to the bill concentrated its efforts, the support of President Frank G. Allen and of Senators Carrick, Chamberlain, Look and Rice among others contributed materially to the final favorable action.
II—The Law as it Now Stands:
The most important of the General Laws of Massachusetts for the control of bill board advertising are contained in sections 29 to 33 of Chapter 93. This gives the division of highways of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works general jurisdiction over advertising signs throughout the state, with certain excep-tions.
The exceptions are found in chapter 8o, where section 8 authorizes the local municipal boards or officers having charge of the laying out of highways m each town and city to grant permits and make rules foi signs in streets and public ways (or projecting moie tfiai -inches over them). Section 2 of the same
mits the Mass. State Automobile Association, uncle
direction of the state division of highways, to erect ngn boards on public roads and Mction^l	whw>
town to erect and maintain smtable ^ enforcement, needed—an excellent rule, lacking y	^er	chap-
The division of highways also has a^Jjon ^n^ ds and ter 81, section 1, to erect gnnle Posta.=rtatejoa
on ways leading thereto, and P ,0arclS indicating ways between cities and towns signboaicis
MASSACHUSETTS
federation of planning boards 5
ments made this year became effective September % ai the law now stands as follows:
General Laws, Chapter 93, as Amended
ADVERTISING SIGNS AND DEVICES WITHIN PUBLIC VIEW
Section 29. The division of highways of the department of public works, hereinafter called the division, shall make and may amend or repeat rules and regulations for the proper control and restriction of billboards, signs and other advertising devices, except as provided in section thirty-two, on public ways or on private property within public view of any highway, public park or reservation. Saul rules and regulations may require that said billboards, signs or other devices be licensed in accordance therewith and with this section, may prescribe license fees, to be fixed with regard to the cost of administering this section, and need not he uniform throughout the commonwealth. Before establishing or amending rules or regulations under this section, the division shall hold duly advertised public hearings in Boston and elsewhere within the commonwealth as it deems necessary or expedient. Cities and towns may further regulate and restrict said billboards or other devices within their respective limits by ordinance or by-law not inconsistent with sections twenty-nine to thirty-three, inclusive, or with said rules and regulations.
Section 30. No person, firm, association or corporation shall post, erect, display or maintain on any public way or on private property within public view from any highway, public park or reservation any bill board or other advertising device, whether erected before August twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and twenty, or not, which advertises or calls attention to any business, article, substance or any other thing, unless such bill board or device conforms to the rules and regulations and ordinances or by-laws established under the preceding section; provided, that this section shall not apply to signs or other devices erected and maintained in conformity with law and which
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®e.ot.,on ?°-A~Any bill board, sign or other device erected after August twentieth, nineteen hundred and twentv without , .vT • zation or permit of the division in cases XwbmKiSS,^0"' permit is required or maintained after siiti attS- a}lt,horization or rule or regulation of the Son shall bedeeS V‘°latlon o£ any division shall have the same power to ^bate and	SaiCl
nuisance as is given to the board nf hfnifS* anT lemoye any such one hundred and twenty-three to ^ne6hun i°£t0Wn under sections elusive, of chapter one hundred and eleven and the^ *"«**-*'*. insections shall, so far as applicableapply the ™ pr°visi0ns of said herein defined. The remedy herein nrevm	of a nuisance as
any other remedy provided by law Pdl Sha11 be in Edition to