Community consultation

John Rocca wrote a commentary published in the today's Telegraph Journal entitled Adopt a better planning process. Rocca suggests in it that community consultation is key to a healthy planning process. The article attracted this comment from user Uptown Girl:

Community consultation WORKS. To cite myself as an example, I was very
worried about the Abbey Court development until my questions were addressed at a
community information session that the Church of St. Andrew and St. David
VOLUNTARILY held early on in the planning process. In fact, the church went out
of its way to invite community participation in the information sessions (and
there were several) by distributing announcement flyers at residences in the
neighbourhood. As a result, I am now wholeheartedly in support of the project
and in fact very much looking forward to it.

The current system forces those with concerns to "fight" developers rather than converse with the. I believe consultation helps communities support projects and have their voices heard in a constructive way. I think Uptown Girl's comments demonstrate that simply trying to have a development approved by city hall is far inferior to open and honest dialogue between developers and community.