The resultant recommendation was that success might be possible if a single project could be created that provided benefits for every community in the area and which was planned and managed in a way that genuinely involved all the major stakeholders in a partnership.

The provincial government took the bold and hitherto untried step of inviting representatives of the recently unbanned political parties, the civic movements in the townships, the squatters association and the local and metropolitan authorities to participate in a process of conceiving and planning a project for the benefit of an agreed range of communities. The Province would host the proceedings and pay for independent facilitation, but would be an equal partner in the process. There would be no pre-planning and no pre-conditions - the maintenance of the integrity of the partnership would be paramount.

Local government has a vital role to play in the creation and administration of human settlements, and thus had to be included in the process. However, in 1991 South African cities were racially segregated and the apartheid government’s attempts to create elected local councils had failed. The "black local authorities" within greater Cape Town were now managed by professional Administrators appointed by the Province. As a consequence the community leadership was not prepared to sit around the same table as the representatives of local authorities that operated in the iSLP project area, although they were willing to meet with representatives of the neighbouring City of Cape Town.

The solution was to create two parallel Policy Committees, each with some common members, meeting within a few days of each other and using identical agendas. The common members were the representatives of the provincial, metropolitan and city authorities. One committee included the political parties and community representatives; the other committee included representatives of the "black local authorities". An independent person, whose integrity was particularly appreciated by the community organisations, was invited to chair the committee in which they participated. The other committee was chaired by the provincial "minister" of community development. The secretarial function was provided by the independent facilitator, and both Policy Committees met on a monthly basis.

A Technical Committee was established to provide the information required by the Policy Committees. Each organisation represented in the Policy Committees was entitled to nominate a member of the Technical Committee. Consultants were commissioned by the Technical Committee as required for undertaking research and special studies, financed by the provincial and metropolitan governments. By this means the project area, the available land & its characteristics and the housing needs were established, and the structure planning of certain key or sensitive areas was undertaken. The Technical Committee also formulated guidelines for town planning and engineering design for application in the iSLP.

Of critical importance to the consultative process was the communication between the members of the Policy Committees and their constituencies. It could not be assumed that all parties would report back and consult, and so to optimise the integrity of community participation in such a large project the Policy Committee appointed a communications consultant to assist its members in this regard by the dissemination of information through leaflets and large-scale workshops.

In 1993, in anticipation of the creation of a new democratic order in South Africa as a result of successes recorded in the national multi-party negotiations, the community representatives on the Policy Committee agreed that the dual committee system was no longer necessary. The committees were merged under the independent chair of Mrs. Mary Burton.