ABSTRACT: Social justice is widely accepted as a normative goal in contemporary urban planning. Achieving this goal, however, is one of the major challenges for present cities and city planners. Planning authorities have attempted to address this challenge by creating opportunities for various stakeholders to participate in the planning process. There is, however, a limited understanding as to whether these stakeholders are able to effectively utilise this opportunity. The principal aim of this paper is to investigate whether creating opportunities for participation in plan making is likely to enhance socially just outcomes by increasing the voice of various community groups including society’s disadvantaged groups. This study analyses community participation in the making of Sydney Metropolitan Strategy 2005 with Fairfield City Council taken as a unit of analysis. Primary data were collected through several field visits and informal discussions, while semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 randomly selected individuals having significant stake in the metropolitan planning. Secondary data were collected from relevant government agencies and library databases. It was found that there was no genuine opportunity for diverse social groups to effectively represent in the process of decision making. Attempts to increase community participation in plan making at Sydney’s regional, sub-regional and local levels have largely maintained status quo with government officials and powerful businesses controlling major decisions. The opportunities to participate in the plan making process are therefore seriously flawed. It is concluded that if the goal of community participation in urban planning is to enhance creating a socially just city, there is need for urgent change in the way plans are made and implemented.