For the purposes of this article, the following
definitions apply:
DIRECTOR
The Director of the Department of Public Works.
LHDC
The Lexington Historic District Commission.
OUTDOOR BOX
Any box, container or device that is placed in an area of
public access on a temporary or permanent basis, including without
limitation devices designed to collect, distribute or sell any item,
such as private delivery service boxes, boxes for the collection of
other items and boxes for newspapers or other literature, provided
that the term shall not include those structures or devices erected
or placed by authorized public agencies for public safety and/or public
welfare purposes. Authorized public safety/public welfare devices
include, but are not limited to, streetlights, traffic lights, mailboxes,
fire hydrants, trees and trash receptacles.
PERSON
Any individual or entity that owns, installs, manages, maintains,
leases, controls or uses any outdoor box.
In order to maintain safe and clean sidewalks
and streets, all persons within the Town of Lexington must comply
with each of the following regulations with respect to outdoor boxes:
A. Any person may install, use, or maintain an outdoor
box as long as no portion of the outdoor box projects into or over
any part of the roadway of any public street or any part of a driveway,
entryway or public street point of access for a home, business, or
other public or private property.
B. Any person may install, use, or maintain an outdoor
box as long as no portion of the outdoor box resting in whole or in
part upon or over any sidewalk or public path endangers the safety
of persons or property, unreasonably interferes with or impedes the
flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic, hinders the use of any handicapped
access ramps or otherwise interferes with compliance with the Americans
with Disabilities Act, interferes with or impedes the ingress or egress
from any residence, place of business, or any legally parked or stopped
vehicle, impairs the visibility of a motor vehicle entering the roadway,
interferes with the cleaning of any sidewalk for the purposes of snow
removal or other public maintenance, or interferes with the use of
poles, posts, traffic signs or signals, hydrants, parking meters,
mailboxes or other public fixtures or utilities.
C. All outdoor boxes that are located on public property
must be located within specific zones, which zones shall be delineated
by the Director. A Town map that displays the zones shall be available,
upon request, through the Director.
D. No outdoor box shall be placed, installed, used or
maintained:
(1) Within 10 feet of the intersection of any two streets.
(2) Within five feet of any marked crosswalk.
(3) Within five feet of any driveway.
(4) Within 10 feet in front of, and 15 feet to the rear
of, any sign marking a designated bus stop.
(5) Within 10 feet of any fire hydrant, fire call box,
police call box or other emergency facility.
(6) At any location whereby the clear passageway of pedestrians
is reduced to less than five feet.
E. All outdoor boxes should be properly maintained in
a clean, neat, and attractive condition and in good repair at all
times.
F. No two outdoor boxes containing identical publications
or literature which is printed, distributed, or sold by a single person
or entity may be placed within 300 feet of each other.
G. No outdoor box may contain a publication or literature
that is harmful to minors as defined by MGL c. 272, § 31.
H. All persons who wish to place an outdoor box on a
public walkway or public path or on any public property must pay a
nominal maintenance fee to the Town in order to offset the aggregate
increased cost of maintaining public property (grass, curbs, sidewalks,
etc.) in the immediate vicinity of the outdoor boxes. The maintenance
fee shall be established and adjusted from time to time as approved
by the Select Board, with the recommendation of the Director, who
will estimate the increased costs of property maintenance near and
around outdoor boxes.
[Amended 3-27-2019 ATM by Art. 34]
I. Securing and anchoring outdoor boxes.
(1) No outdoor box shall be chained, anchored, or attached
in any manner to public property, including signposts, parking meters,
fences, trash receptacles, or other public fixtures without the explicit
approval of the Director in advance. The Director may deny approval
to secure an outdoor box to public property if, in his or her determination,
such action would physically or aesthetically damage public property,
create an impediment to pedestrian, bicycle or motor vehicle traffic
or otherwise create an unsafe condition. Any denial of such permission
shall be accompanied by the Director's statement of the specific reasons
for such denial.
(2) In order to prevent theft, outdoor boxes may be anchored or attached to each other or anchored by other theft prevention methods, only so long as all such methods are specifically approved by the Director in advance. The Director may deny such approval pursuant to the guidelines in Subsection
I(1) above, and such denial shall be accompanied by the Director's statement of the specific reasons for such denial.
Outdoor boxes are not exempt from regulation
under the Historic Districts Act. Therefore, in addition to the above
general regulations, in order to preserve the unique physical character
of the local historic districts, any person who intends to place an
outdoor box within one of the four established historic districts
of the Town must first receive a certificate of appropriateness from
the LHDC.
A. The LHDC shall receive applications for certificates
of appropriateness from persons intending to install or continue maintaining
an outdoor box within a historic district. Upon receipt of an application,
the LHDC shall hold a hearing to evaluate the potential impact on
the integrity of the historic district, taking into account the proposed
location of the outdoor box, the exterior design, color and signage
displayed on the outdoor box and the proposed method, if any, of anchoring
the outdoor box. After weighing the above factors, the LHDC must issue
or deny the certificate of appropriateness. If the LHDC denies the
certificate of appropriateness, it must state the specific reasons
for such denial and inform the applicant of what steps can be undertaken
to enhance a successful subsequent application.
B. A certificate of appropriateness must accompany each
application to the Director for installation of an outdoor box in
a historic district and must remain on file with the Director. If
the Director discovers that an outdoor box is located within a historic
district without a certificate of appropriateness on file, the Director
shall order the removal the outdoor box.
The Director shall have primary authority for
enforcing these regulations.
All the foregoing provisions shall become effective
on April 1, 2001.