City Government
Boards & Commissions
There is a single web form that lets you apply to sit on the bodies that decide what gets built in Boston, what gets torn down, who sells alcohol, and who is allowed to run your schools. It takes a resume and a cover letter, you can apply to five boards at once. Here is the address: apps.boston.gov/commissions/apply. Read the rest of this page before you fill it in, because which board you pick matters enormously.
The rooms where the decisions actually land
The Mayor and the Council get the attention, while a startling amount of what happens to a city gets decided by volunteer boards whose members are appointed rather than elected. A zoning board can approve the building that changes your street forever. A landmarks commission can stop a demolition. A licensing board can close a business. These rooms are small, they are public, and they have room in them for people who show up.
Most members are appointed by the Mayor. Some require City Council confirmation, some do not, and one seat on the development board is appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts. There is no single rule, because each board was created by a different law, sometimes more than a century ago. Look up the law behind the board you care about, and expect it to surprise you.
What each board actually decides
| Zoning Board of Appeal | Grants or refuses exceptions to the zoning code. If a developer wants to build something the rules do not allow, this is the room where they ask. Seven members, appointed by the Mayor. The public can testify at its hearings. |
|---|---|
| Boston Landmarks Commission | Can block or delay the demolition or alteration of a historic building. Members are nominated by neighborhood and professional groups, appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council, and all of them must be Boston residents. |
| Licensing Board | Decides who may sell alcohol and food, and punishes violations. Three commissioners appointed by the Mayor to six-year terms. Until recently this was a board the Governor controlled, a leftover from a 1906 state law. |
| The development board | Votes on major development across the city. Four members appointed by the Mayor with Council confirmation, and one appointed by the Governor. Boston’s planning function has been reorganized under the current administration, so read the current listing before you assume anything. |
| Board of Health | Adopts binding public health regulations, on tobacco, cannabis, laboratories and more. Six members appointed by the Mayor subject to Council approval, plus the CEO of Boston Medical Center. |
| Library Trustees | Sets policy and strategy for the Boston Public Library and its branches. Appointed by the Mayor. |
| School Committee Nominating Panel | The gate every School Committee member walks through. Thirteen people who screen applicants and hand the Mayor a slate. It has open seats. |
Membership is left off this page for a reason. The city’s own published rosters are in several cases out of date, and one of them lists more members than the board is allowed to have, with expired terms still marked active. Check the live roster on boston.gov before you rely on a name.
The Boston Housing Authority has no board at all
This one is genuinely strange and worth knowing. The BHA houses tens of thousands of Bostonians and has no board of commissioners at all: it went into receivership in 1979, the board was dissolved, and it has stayed dissolved ever since. The agency runs today under an Administrator who serves at the Mayor’s pleasure.
There is still a way in, and it belongs to tenants rather than to appointees: the BHA’s Resident Advisory Board is elected by residents themselves, and its monitoring committee reserves a majority of seats for tenants. Live in public housing in this city and you hold a vote in how it is run.
If you are a student, these three are yours
- The Mayor’s Youth Council. Open to Boston residents in grades 9 through 12. Applications for the 2026 to 2027 term close on July 30, 2026. The form is at boston.gov/myc and questions go to myc@boston.gov.
- Youth Lead the Change. Boston youth aged 14 to 25 decide how to spend $1 million a year of the city’s capital budget. It is a separate thing from the citywide Ideas in Action vote on the budget page.
- The student seat on the School Committee. Chosen by students, through the Boston Student Advisory Council, not by the Mayor. It is the only youth seat of its kind on any city body.
All three are covered properly, with what each one asks of you and what trips people up, on Your School, Your Say.
How to apply to a board
- Go to apps.boston.gov/commissions/apply. One form covers every board. You may apply to as many as five at once.
- Bring a resume and a cover letter. If you have never written either, a librarian at any BPL branch will help you, free, today.
- Check the residency rule for that specific board. Most require you to live in Boston, though a few do not, because each board was created under its own law.
- Questions go to boardsandcommissions@boston.gov.
- Meanwhile, just go to a meeting. You do not need a seat to attend, and most of these bodies take public testimony. The fastest way to understand a board is to watch it decide something.
What this seat decides
Your other boards
Board of Health. Tobacco and nicotine sales, flavored products, food permits, and housing conditions. It can pass a binding regulation on its own without a Town Meeting vote, which makes it the fastest lever in Massachusetts.
Planning Board. Where housing or businesses can be built, height limits, and a specific development. It holds the public hearing, and the zoning change itself is voted by Town Meeting or the Council and needs two thirds.
Conservation Commission. A stream, a wetland, a marsh, or a pond.
Library Trustees. Library hours, programs, and policy. The library's money comes from Town Meeting.
Parks and Recreation Commission. A field, a court, a playground, or a park. The money for building one usually comes from Town Meeting.
Historical Commission. An old building, and whether it can be torn down or saved.
The boards that decide the most contested things in Boston are full. The panel that chooses the people who run your schools is looking for members. That is a map, not a coincidence.
Photos: “Faneuil Hall” by Epicgenius, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.