The article illustrates how new forms of control and coordination (governance), from the local to the regional level, can contribute to managing central planning challenges of long-term landscape and open space development in metropolitan regions. Procedural formats for the various participation levels are presented in an overview, as well as an approach to the focused design for processes of participation. Which objectives must be set at the beginning of a participatory process to develop an effective and efficient procedure format that generates high-quality results are a primary purpose of this discourse.