Law No. 6 of 2014 concerning Rural provides an opportunity themselves to carry out participatory rural development planning processes by involving the community as much as possible. However, the reality on the ground shows that not all regions have local regulations on rural development planning and the role of sectoral institutions in this process is still dominant. This research seeks to describe how public participation in rural development planning, by taking a case study in Semarang

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... . This research is product oriented and is designed using the CIPP (Context, Input, Process, and Product) model. The results show that in Semarang Regency formally, the procedure for preparing rural development plans still refers to higher regulations, namely regulations issued by the Ministry of Villages. On the other hand, symptoms of the emergence of awareness of the importance of public space and dialogue efforts in utilizing existing public spaces for all components of society to build their villages are clearly visible. Development program planning is very synchronous with the implementation of regional development programs, realized by the nature of partnerships and togetherness among community members. In fact, the role of actors who are less able to encourage change, such as the role of village clerics who no longer determine the determination of development programs. Therefore, forms of community participation, both direct and indirect, should be applied at all levels and at all stages of the program determination process.