Responding to complaints about a proliferation of advocacy lawn signs on the Town Hall campus, on Wednesday evening the Board of Selectmen adopted a policy to limit and define acceptable placements.

Beginning on October 1, the only signs permitted on the campus are those posted by official Town functions about “specific community activities or events” and those approved for placement by community organizations to promote events or fundraising initiatives.

The campus is defined as the grounds of Town Hall, the Weston Public Library, the Onion Barn, the Jarvis property (where the Parks and Recreation department is housed), and the roadside rights-of-way of each.

The policy anticipates that, each January, the selectmen will review a slate of organizations and signage that fit the criteria. On an ongoing basis, the board will consider requests from nonprofits and Weston-based organizations to promote events.

In their discussions, which began in depth in May, the selectmen essentially acknowledged as a given “legacy signs” that for years have been placed by long-established community groups, the likes of Friends of the Library, school organizations, the League of Women Voters, churches, Kiwanis, Scout troops, Weston Warm-Up, and others.

The issue

The target appears to be a large number of signs that have popped up in the last couple of years — often placed by unknown groups or individuals — relating to controversial causes.

“I’m sad that we’re here,” said First Selectwoman Samantha Nestor in May. Until recently, she said, signs on town property were only about community events, “never advocacy.”

Ms. Nestor said complaints from all sides of issues come in daily about the “recent phenomenon” of signs supporting causes like Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine. “People have told me the signs are offensive or upsetting,” she said. “Some say they make them feel like they don’t belong here.”

The policy does not affect election campaign signs, which Town Administrator Karl Kilduff said cannot lawfully be prohibited. Only recently have campaign signs been placed at Town Hall.

The final provision of the policy adopted this week is that unapproved signs will be removed and discarded without notice, with the Town accepting no responsibility to store them.