They are a private lobbying group and do not speak for the neighborhood.
You are right, they do not speak for the neighborhood, but they DO get the neighborhood together and organized to review plans by businesses that are not honest and forthright. If Roost Cafe had just been honest, instead of showing one version, then trying to slide in a larger version, none of this would be necessary. In the end, there was not one issue from the neighborhood when it was a smaller venue, not one. Only when the venue decided it wanted 150 seats worth of patrons did RAP and the neighborhood come together and discuss this.
Compromise will happen, RAP helps facilitate the compromise. They never are the deciding factor.
If the ROOST people were smart, they'd have gotten ahead of this and held their own meetings and spin this more positively for themselves, but you let the neighborhood decide it, well, you are going to be SPIF out of Luck.