Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 41 § 81N
Except as provided in section eighty-one EE, the subdivision control law shall be in effect in every city, except Boston, and every town, which prior to the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, established a planning board as defined in section eighty-one L, or which after said date establishes a planning board under section eighty-one A unless such city or town by vote of its city council or town meeting at the time of establishment of such board shall vote not to accept the provisions of the subdivision control law. Any such city or town which shall have voted not to accept such provisions may thereafter accept such provisions in the manner provided in section four of chapter four, and any city or town having a board of survey, however established, may accept such provisions in such manner, and the subdivision control law shall be similarly in effect in such cities and towns. In any city or town which has not established a planning board under section eighty-one A, but which has a board of survey, however established, and has prior to the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, accepted corresponding provisions of the subdivision control law, or shall after said date accept the provisions of the subdivision control law in such manner, the board of survey shall have all the powers and be subject to all the duties of a planning board relating to subdivision control. In every city and town in which the subdivision control law is in effect the provisions of sections eighty-one K to eighty-one GG, as the same may from time to time be in force, shall, notwithstanding any contrary or inconsistent provision of any general or special law, apply in such city or town irrespective of whether the board having such powers is established under section eighty-one A or under any other general or special law. The subdivision control law, however, shall not become effective in any city or town in which it was not in effect on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, until the planning board of such city or town shall have notified the register of deeds and the recorder of the land court that the city or town has accepted the provisions of the subdivision control law and that the planning board has adopted its rules and regulations as provided in section eighty-one Q and shall have furnished the said register and recorder with a copy of the vote of the city council or town meeting under which the provisions of the subdivision control law were accepted in such city or town, certified by the city or town clerk, and a copy of such rules and regulations certified by said clerk.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 41, § 81N