Town Government
Belchertown Boards & Commissions
What Boards & Commissions Are
Beyond the Select Board and the School Committee, Belchertown runs on more than thirty volunteer boards, commissions and committees. They approve new development, hear zoning appeals, protect the town’s wetlands and open space, recommend how Community Preservation money is spent, advise Town Meeting on the budget, and guide services for older residents and veterans. They are the rooms where an ordinary resident can have the most direct hand in a decision, and the town says so on its own page: it relies on resident volunteers and new members are always welcome.
Two routes fill them. Voters elect the Planning Board, the Board of Health, the Board of Assessors and the Housing Authority directly, alongside the Select Board, the School Committee, the Town Clerk and the Moderator. Everything else is appointed, most of it by the Select Board, and the Town Manager appoints members of multiple member bodies under the 2024 Town Manager Act as well. Each Select Board member also carries a published list of liaison assignments, so every committee has a named board member who follows its work.
Key Boards & Commissions
- Planning Board reviews subdivisions, site plans and zoning changes. Five members, elected, five year terms.
- Zoning Board of Appeals hears variances and special permits. Appointed.
- Conservation Commission protects Belchertown’s wetlands, brooks and open space, and is one of the three bodies whose property the Town Manager’s jurisdiction does not reach.
- Finance Committee reviews the budget and reports to Town Meeting. It publishes a fiscal message and revenue projections with its recommendations, and it can approve transfers from the reserve fund between meetings, which is often what makes a Special Town Meeting unnecessary.
- Board of Health oversees inspections, permits and public health rules. Five members, elected, three year terms.
- Community Preservation Committee recommends how the town spends its Community Preservation Act money on open space, historic preservation, recreation and community housing. Town Meeting votes each project one at a time.
- Capital Improvement Planning Committee is new, and the Select Board credited its creation, with a capital planning reserve fund, as one of the year’s real achievements.
- Historical Commission and the Historic District By-Law Commission work on the town’s historic places and its historic district.
- Housing Authority runs the town’s public housing. Five seats, one of them a state appointment, and the town’s own 2026 list shows how often these seats sit open.
For the full roster, current members, vacancies and schedules, see the town’s committee directory.
How to Serve
- Find an opening on the town’s Volunteer Boards and Committees page, which lists what is currently open.
- Submit an application through that same page. It goes to the Select Board for consideration.
- Interview if asked, and await the appointment vote at a public meeting.
- Serve: attend the public meetings and help make decisions for your town.
Some seats fill faster than others, and the town’s own elected officers list is the honest guide to which ones are waiting. In 2026 it recorded a Housing Authority seat vacant and a state seat unfilled, and one Board of Assessors seat was filled at the ballot box only because a candidate stood for a two year vacancy. An open seat is an invitation.
Serving on a board is one of the most direct ways to shape Belchertown.