Taking the method of formal consensus as its conceptual point of departure, the article analyses the Swedish cadastral executive procedure ( fastighetsförrättning ) as a case where the issue of land use directly confronts the individual citizen with the state administrative apparatus and its interpretation of the land policy legislation. In the mixture of negotiations, consensual decision-making and court procedure that characterizes this process the emphasis is on the crucial, and complex role of the executive land surveyor. Identifying deliberative democracy and communicative planning theory as two complementary discourses within which to discuss the cadastral executive procedure, the article finally argues that giving consensual approaches to planning a stronger place in their training would substantially improve the ability of the land surveyor to execute her/his delicate set of roles in this procedure.