[Lancaster] software for planning consultation

[max]

Hi there,

you may have heard about Real Planning for Lancaster 
(http://www.realplanningforlancaster.org.uk) who are putting together a 
community-plan for the area around the canal as an alternative to the 
supermarket and road that chelverton-carillion want to do. I'm currently 
scratching my head, and trying to find a programme that will help with the 
consultation process. I seem to remember some software (gnu of course) that 
allowed you to zone a map using a mouse - just like in simcity or lincity - 
and then outputted the results in a format that could be imported into a 
database or spreadsheet. Has anyone come across this software - or anything 
similar - or can anyone think of an easy (and quick) way of doing such 
software (or any that could help the consultation process)?

any help appreciated

max