Planning with people, for place

Plan Locally partners with governments, communities, Traditional Owners and multidisciplinary teams to translate local knowledge into practical, evidence-based strategies that create resilient, adaptable and thriving places.

Let's Plan Together

Planning works best when communities are engaged and truly heard.

Too often, planning frameworks and strategies are written about communities rather than with them.

Local voices are gathered, then lost in translation. Final plans can become technically focused and detached from the people they are meant to serve.

Community Engagement - Doomadgee QLD

Plan Locally can help

At Plan Locally, we work at the intersection of community voices and planning frameworks. Good planning starts on the ground, with locals sharing what matters most to them and experts helping turn those stories and insights into clear workable strategy.

We do this through a simple and collaborative approach:

  1. LISTEN - we begin with listening to community voices, cultural knowledge and lived experiences.

  2. TRANSLATE - we align insights with evidence, policy, legislation, and best practice.

  3. DELIVER - we collaborate with governments, Traditional Owners, and technical specialists to deliver grounded, implementable and resilience outcomes.

Our Services

  • Strategic & Statutory Planning

    We create clear and practical planning strategies and statutory plans that reflect local values and best practice.

  • Cultural Planning & Engagement

    We support culturally grounded planning processes that honour local identity and knowledge, particularly with First Nations and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities.

  • Engagement Translation & Policy Integration

    We turn community insights into transparent, balanced, and actionable policy directions that strengthen planning strategies and frameworks.

  • Community Engagement & Co-Design

    We collaboratively design and facilitate inclusive engagement processes where communities actively shape the decisions affecting their place.

  • Community-Led Precinct & Master Planning

    We develop precinct and master plans that are locally led, collaboratively designed and supported by practical implementation pathways.

  • Resilience & Climate Adaptation Strategy

    We translate climate science and community knowledge and lived experience into practical, place-based resilience and adaptation strategies.

“The best plans are those the community can see themselves in.” - Upendo

Upendo Kowero (Founder and Principal Consultant) is a planner, resilience practitioner and engagement specialist with almost 20 years’ experience across local and state government in Australia. Her work is shaped by grassroots community engagement, cultural awareness and a commitment to making planning accessible, inclusive and grounded in lived experience.

Upendo is a Chagga woman from the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and her lived experience as an African Australian woman deeply informs her practice. She sees, hears and understands communities often left out of traditional planning processes.

She believes that when locals lead and experts guide, the results speak for themselves:

  • Policies that reflect real community voices

  • Strategies built on both data and story

  • Places people are proud to call home.

Plan Locally pays deep respect to the Traditional Custodians of all Nations across Australia. We commit to upholding the principles of Respect, Reciprocity, Responsibility, and Cultural Authority in all our planning and engagement work, ensuring First Nations peoples' voices, rights, and knowledges lead and inform decisions.