Community involvement in the process of city planning and design has become an increasingly important topic during the last 50 years. This thesis examines the community design charrette as a tool for cooperation, consensus and resolution of problems facing American cities today. The University of Georgia (UGA) Center for Community Design & Preservation (CCDP) conducted forty-nine charrettes in the state of Georgia between 1998 and 2006. The success and failure of community involvement efforts, such as charrettes can be linked in part to a communitys level of readiness and existing level of social capacity. Research for this thesis includes an analysis of communities, based on responses to a charrette follow-up survey. In-depth study of four participating Georgia towns resulted in several noteworthy and significant findings.