Our club has a by-law that says no changes to the course (tees, fairways, bunkers or greens, excluding trees) shall be made without a Master Plan prepared by a gca and approved by a majority vote of the membership.
We just went through the process, including a special presentation of the plan to the membership with a video slide-show, etc. The plan passed 191-9.
It is a long, tedious process but the only way to go, IMO. If you try to take short cuts and keep the planning process to a select powerful few, you may get a great plan, but the rest of the membership will feel slighted and there will be problems later.