The master planning objective that often gets missed...

Master plans are important in both the private and public sector, there's no doubt about it. They outline a strategic direction, help obtain investment, minimise risk, inform decision-making processes, and ensure infrastructure is adequately planned for. We know that, which is why there are so many professionals around the world who make a living out of creating master plans.

But there is something that is frequently overlooked in master plans, and has come up a lot in conversation lately. Someone high up in an organisation described them like a "kid's Christmas wish list". This description might liken Santa to an imaginary bucket of money for building and maintaining projects...

Image 1: Master plans can be over-ambitious like a letter to Santa

If master plans are not realistic, then they sit on a shelf and collect dust or get lost in the digital archives. So we have to sit our master plan process and outcomes somewhere in the middle of blue sky thinking and feasibility.

Knowing the audience - whether it's a wealthy high net worth individual or developer group where the sky is almost the limit (as long as the return on investment or passion for the project is there!), vs a regional council with a low ratepayer base (even if a grant is obtained to build a project, maintenance costs and depreciation can be unmanageable). For some clients, a $10 million development might be loose change, but for others the ongoing operational costs alone of such a project will send them broke.

Image 2: Working realistic stakeholder and client expectations into the master planning process is essential

While we certainly don't want to dull things down to bare bones and never get the opportunity to do anything creative, it can be pretty easy for a consultant with a plan to figuratively pick up and move multi-million dollar facilities or add new development to a site without any existing infrastructure just because that's what people participating in workshops want, without thinking about the long term financial consequences for their client.

And worse, when master plans get developed following an extensive consultation process, and nothing happens, stakeholder exhaustion and fatigue occurs. And that is never fun for anyone involved, especially the next bright-eyed and bushy-tailed consultant who is fresh in town and full of big ideas with their pieces of butcher paper, sticky notes and markers in hand.

Some of the best things in life await at the end of our comfort zones, so a no risk, no reward approach still definitely applies, but just like you wouldn't go much further off the coast or in conditions that exceed your boat's capacity - master planning is a bit like that.

Talk to us about your next project, and we can work together to think outside the box of what is possible, while keeping in mind what is reasonable.

Image 3: Staying moored in sheltered harbours... nope. But going out where you're capable of reaching, definitely.