Infinitum Partners were engaged by the Lockyer Valley Regional Council to provide advice on the  necessary approvals required to clean-out Lake Apex given a period of drought. Fortunately, rain enabled the re-filling both of Lake Freeman and Lake Apex.  Infinitum Partners together with GenEng took this opportunity to pause and consider what could be an optimal outcome for the entire precinct.

Ten years on from the development of the existing Lake Apex Park Master Plan, much had changed across the Lockyer Valley and it was timely to undertake a refresh and test with the community regarding the importance of the Lakes and what the future of the precinct could look like. Infinitum Partners sought to understand exactly what had changed – and why – to support a well informed and reliable decision-making process around a refresh of the little known, current master plan.

A broad, hyper-localised planning investigation and community engagement process was used to deep dive into the hearts and minds of residents across the region, and included and integrated mix of exemplar site tours, highly personalised key stakeholder sessions, region wide survey, experiential signage, pop-ups, subject matter expert interviews, and more.

Through the process, the team worked with council and community to inform and engage around their refreshed vision and values for the future of the site. What occurred was something more: Early consensus across an overwhelming majority of highly informed residents.

The ultimate success of this meant that council was well equipped – and earlier than expected – with a clear, compelling community direction and vision for use as an ongoing decision-making tool for planning stages to follow, knowing that much of the hard work was already complete in bringing the community along .