Technological approaches in urban planning processes can offer long-term benefits, including citizens empowered to co-design their towns, increasing the likelihood of public project approval, and a variety of solutions tailored to a town’s needs, such as general climate adaptation. Ireland has been slow to adopt digital technologies in the non-statutory phases of urban planning, limiting itself to rigid, bureaucratic statutory processes. Dundrum by Design is presented as an innovative case study that aims to bridge the gap between local authority, communities, pedagogy and technology. Using semi-interoperable design platforms, Dundrum by Design broadens the public’s accessibility towards participation in these crucial early stages. Community inputs have created a substantial database for the local authority and the Dundrum Living Street scheme, advancing conversations in each phase as the initiative progresses. Our findings show the initiative’s gradual public acceptance and increasing community uptake, results likely derived from the transparency of digital tools used and the relationships built with community groups. The initiative’s results aim to equip the local authority with data-backed solutions, sensitive to the local community’s needs and to climate adaptation, while also providing technology-based capacity building for future schemes.