Every jurisdiction reports longer approval cycles and most attribute it to bureaucratic capacity. The case files suggest something more specific: a large share of the lost time is spent redoing consultation that was treated as a formality.
The pattern
A project consults late, receives an objection it cannot answer, and then spends two years negotiating what six months of early engagement would have settled.
What good looks like
Published minutes, identifiable representatives, grievance mechanisms with response times, and a record of what changed in the plan as a result.
