Citizen participation has become an important part of planning. It can empower and significantly influence the planning process as well as the project design. How effective has it been historically? Does it actually influence the decision making process? Has it ever, or even can citizen participation effectiveness be measured? It has been noted that citizen participation practice had increased over the last three decades and is now practical in the planning process. However, the constant debates over citizen participation and citizen control have not resulted in the ability to evaluate its effectiveness. Planning on the community level is the process of incorporating into the plan consideration of human needs, preferences and values attributable to each proposal before the decision making body. The determination of effective planning takes into account diverse perspectives and impacts allowing the decision makers the opportunity to find solutions and empower local citizens in the planning process. This thesis examines the roles of community residents, government staff, and community organizations in the Cherry Hill, a Baltimore neighborhood, on which measures of citizen participation are effective. Mainly, two meetings sponsored by the Baltimore Region Environmental Justice in Transportation Program (BREJT) and the Baltimore City Department of Planning (BCDP) with the community are examined. What measures effectiveness of citizen participation and how does these measures appear in the Cherry Hill case study? This thesis uses a model of public participation to analyze the case study showing participation in state transportation planning and city master plan development between local agencies and Cherry Hill. The model draws a correlation between citizen participation and its effectiveness to influence authorities' decision making in development of agency's policies. The results show that citizen participation differed significantly from those meetings held with the community and BREJT and the BCDP. Each meeting shows some form of participation ranging from "Therapy" to "Placation" to use labels describing activities according to the model.-- Abstract.