Both Derry City Council and Donegal County Council have called for a refocusing of the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) to include a greater island of Ireland dimension.
In separate submissions to the Department of the Environment the importance of Derry to the Co Donegal area is stressed.
Mr Mark Lusby of Derry City Council said the role of Derry as the regional hub within the northwest "is not sufficiently acknowledged" in the NSS consultation document. "The northwest is therefore perceived as lacking in critical mass and to have a lower development potential than other regions with significant hubs," he said.
Although Derry had all the attributes for a gateway city and was larger than Limerick, Galway or Waterford, the consultative document "fails to acknowledge the contribution the city can make" in achieving balanced regional development.
While it was to be welcomed that that Letterkenny-Derry axis was recognised as a transportation and development corridor, it was disappointing that the document saw the impact of the corridor as limited to bringing about closer networking of the two centres and the respective catchments.
He said the approach in the Southern document was in contrast to the North's Spatial Development Strategy which identified Derry as a key hub.
Mr Lusby said it was crucial that both documents, North and South, were used to form a cohesive strategy for the benefit of the whole northwest.
In its submission, Donegal County Council, along with the Donegal County Development Board, also asked for a re-ordering of the hierarchy of urban centres to include Belfast and Derry. It said road projects should be reprioritised on this basis.
It said that by identifying Derry city as the capital of the northwest, critical mass could be obtained for the county "through the meaningful development of the Derry-Letterkenny and Sligo-Donegal town axes".
In the consultation document, Donegal is identified as the North Border Functional Area. The county council argues that for the county to optimise its potential the spatial strategy had to consider the importance of linkages with Northern Ireland. This was particularly important in the delivery of key infrastructure such as roads, telecommunications and energy.
It said a cross-Border integrated approach to spatial planning was "essential" for Co Donegal.