Town Government
Brewster Boards & Commissions
What Boards & Commissions Are
Beyond the Select Board and the School Committee, much of Brewster’s governing happens on volunteer boards and commissions. They approve new development, hear zoning appeals, protect the town’s wetlands and ponds, weigh in on historic places, and guide services for residents. They are the rooms where an ordinary resident can have the most direct hand in a decision.
Who appoints them is a real question here, and Brewster’s charter answers it plainly: the Select Board appoints the members of the town’s multiple-member bodies except where the charter says otherwise. What is unusual in Brewster is how much it says otherwise. Charter section 2-11-1 has the voters electing not just the Select Board, the School Committee and the Moderator, but the Board of Health, the Planning Board, the Recreation Commission, four of the five Historic District Committee seats, three of the five Housing Authority seats, Brewster’s representatives to the Nauset Regional committee, and a Constable whose one power is posting the warrant. In many towns those are appointed seats. In Brewster they are ballot lines.
Key Boards & Commissions
- Planning Board reviews subdivisions, site plans, and major development. Elected, seven members, four year terms.
- Zoning Board of Appeals hears variances and special permits. Appointed by the Select Board.
- Conservation Commission protects Brewster’s wetlands, ponds, and open space. Appointed by the Select Board, and resized by the voters themselves: the May 2026 Annual Town Meeting cut it from seven members to five by majority vote.
- Finance Committee reviews the budget and advises Town Meeting on spending.
- Board of Health oversees inspections, permits, and public health rules, and monitors the town’s ponds. Elected, five members, three year terms.
- Recreation Commission guides the parks, fields and beaches. Elected, five members, three year terms.
- Community Preservation Committee recommends how the town spends its Community Preservation Act money on open space, historic preservation, recreation and affordable housing, and Town Meeting votes each project.
- Housing Authority runs the town’s public housing. Five members, three of them elected, five year terms.
- Sea Camps committees: after the 2021 purchase the town stood up resident committees to plan the two former Sea Camps properties, and the planning they produced went back to Town Meeting for a vote in 2026.
For the full roster, current members, vacancies, and schedules, see the town’s own Boards & Committees index.
How to Serve
- Find an opening on the town’s boards and committees index, which lists every body from the Agricultural Commission to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
- Submit a letter of interest or application to the Select Board office, which is the appointing authority for most volunteer seats.
- Interview if asked, and await appointment.
- Serve: attend the public meetings and help make decisions for your town.
And remember the other door: many Brewster boards are elected, not appointed. Nomination papers from the Town Clerk and a spring campaign put a resident on the Board of Health, the Planning Board, the Recreation Commission or the Housing Authority. In May 2026 a two year unexpired Planning Board term was won with 17 write-in votes, and a five year Housing Authority seat with 57, which is how close those rooms are to anyone willing to run.
Serving on a board is one of the most direct ways to shape Brewster.
MassCivics last checked this page on September 25, 2026.
Sources
- Charter and bylaws: Massachusetts General Court, Acts of 2022, Chapter 396, the Brewster home rule charter, as of January 5, 2023.