I was one of several who each attended commissioners’ meetings in various rural locales, took notes and wrote reports for several years. Some of us did so during the ‘90s, others after 2000.
We found that working in coordination with local special interests would not be feasible very soon except for individual permits for particular projects where needed for the overall plan. There were also state and local code changes where most likely to succeed as models for other locales in the future (compressed earth blocks in one state, a utility in another, etc.).
In the past, we desperately needed more engineers (licensed engineers). Now, we are very grateful for yet more engineers. More genuinely interested lawyers are also more than welcome, though it’s a volunteer effort with everyone being thoroughly screened by professionals, administrators and communities for genuine interest.
There are “local special interests” and there are “community interests” and there are combinations of the two.
In rural areas it’s very easy to do things that won’t affect neighbors. Very hard to do things that will, of course.