"I had a client in recently who spent close to $4,000 on surveys and drawings for various boards just for permission to put up a $600 deck," said Gloria Gouveia, a land-use consultant in Westport, Conn.

Bill Shaffer, an architect in Westport who specializes in waterfront designs, said people should make it a priority to contact a land-use consultant when they are considering properties near wetlands.

For Jon Carey McEwan, a 49-year-old land-use consultant, "this kind of fellowship is precious."

In White Plains, Thomas E. Whyatt, a land-use consultant for the Westchester Land Trust, is advising Concerned Citizens for Open Space, a group that wants to save parkland in that city.

Riverhead's land-use consultant, Land Ethics Inc., said its proposal to limit building to 15 percent of farm parcels was designed to make conversion of farmland into residential developments "less appealing for landowners and developers."

This time, Port Chester hired land-use consultants, traffic-engineering companies and additional lawyers, the cost of which, $240,000, was paid for by the Home Depot.

A land-use consultant was hired and embarked on a round of environmental approvals: from the town, the state and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Mr. Connerly is a wealthy land-use consultant from Sacramento.

"They are presiding over very expensive decisions," said Catherine A. Mesiano, a land-use consultant.

The influx has been sizable enough to attract the police, who scattered the peddlers there on Wednesday, said Wellington Chen, a land-use consultant with an office on nearby 41st Road.