Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 41 § 70
Every city and every town having a population of more than ten thousand at the last preceding national census shall, and towns having a population of less than ten thousand may, create a planning board, which shall make careful studies of the resources, possibilities and needs of the town, particularly with respect to conditions injurious to the public health or otherwise in and about rented dwellings, and make plans for the development of the municipality, with special reference to proper housing of its inhabitants. In cities the said board shall be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the council, and in towns shall be elected at the annual town meeting or be appointed in such manner as an annual town meeting may determine.
No planning board shall be established under this section after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and thirty-six, but any such board established under this section or corresponding provisions of earlier laws and existing on said date shall continue until its existence is terminated under section eighty-one B.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 41, § 70