Do public participation processes such as stakeholder roundtables facilitate the capacity to develop and implement sound environmental policy? This work is an in depth, case study that provides some insights into a local air quality roundtable process and examines its capacity to create social capital and community agency key components for meaningful, tangible change. The research details some of the strengths and constraints that emerged through the process and explicates these strengths and constraints as they relate to stakeholder relationships, stakeholder agency and information assimilation. Analysis of stakeholder perspectives provides a unique opportunity to determine if a democratic approach to improving air quality works, or if the complexities of the issue require a more technocratic approach. This work may be useful to professionals wishing to develop environmental policy at the local level.