Town Government
Rockland Boards & Commissions
What Boards & Commissions Are
Beyond the Select Board and the School Committee, Rockland runs on volunteer boards and commissions, and the town’s own portal lists 41 of them. They approve new development, hear zoning appeals, protect wetlands and open space, review the budget before Town Meeting sees it, and guide services for older residents. They are the rooms where an ordinary resident can have the most direct hand in a decision.
Rockland is unusual in how many of these seats voters fill themselves. The April ballot carries the Select Board and the School Committee, and also the Board of Assessors, the Board of Health, Library Trustees, a Park Commissioner, the Planning Board, a Sewer Commissioner, a Water Commissioner and the Town Clerk. The rest are appointed, most of them by the Select Board, and seats open up regularly. Every board’s current membership, term length and vacancy count is published at onboard.rockland-ma.gov.
Key Boards & Commissions
- Planning Board reviews subdivisions, site plans and major development, and its five elected members also sit as the Design Review Board under Article XIII of the charter.
- Zoning Board of Appeals hears variances and special permits. Seven members, five-year terms, under charter section C-2.02G.
- Conservation Commission administers the state Wetlands Protection Act and Rockland’s own wetlands bylaw over floodplains, rivers, streams and vegetated wetlands. Seven members appointed by the Select Board to three-year terms, established at the 1967 Annual Town Meeting.
- Finance Committee reviews the budget and advises Town Meeting on spending. Fifteen members, and they are appointed by the Town Moderator rather than by the Select Board, under charter section 6.04.
- Board of Health oversees inspections, clinics and public health rules, and its members are elected.
- Council on Aging guides the senior center’s programs. Eleven members appointed by the Select Board to three-year terms, under charter section C-2.02H.
- Capital Planning Committee ranks the town’s long-term building and equipment needs. Seven voting members, under charter section C-6.07.
- Historical Commission works on Rockland’s historic places, authorized by the Annual Town Meeting of April 10, 1972.
How to Serve
- Find an opening on the town’s boards and committees portal, which marks vacancies and seats expiring soon.
- Submit an application for appointment to town committees, the form the Select Board office publishes.
- Interview if asked, and await appointment by the Select Board.
- Or run for one. Ten town offices appear on the April ballot, and nomination papers come out of the Town Clerk’s office in January with fifty certified signatures required.
Serving on a board is one of the most direct ways to shape Rockland.