That is advice of Kathy Dedo, who chairs the community reference group.
The group consists of six residents with no particular expertise in town planning, who were appointed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
It and members of the Wanaka Community Board are "testing" ideas put up for inclusion in the Wanaka town centre master plan, which looks ahead 30 years and is likely to have a major impact on vehicle access and parking.
Some ideas from QLDC planners were presented to the public as options during an experimental closing to vehicles of two important town centre streets last month.
Ms Dedo said the process now was to turn the options into a single preferred plan for the town centre.
The preferred plan is scheduled to be put before the public before the end of next month.
Stantec consultant Ali Siddiqui is managing the project.
Ms Dedo said the experts employed by the QLDC would play the leading role in creating the preferred plan but from the community's point of view "it's understanding what the options are and making sure we are giving our input into, well, that sort of thing would make sense in our community ... and that sort of thing [that] would not.
"Master planning is an example of `wouldn't it be great if everyone could get engaged just that little bit more?'
"And some of that is just time we have to invest to understand the complexities, because it's not simple," Ms Dedo said.
"It's a really interesting thing to go through as a town."
The reference group held a workshop earlier this month for a wider group of about 40 "stakeholders".
They included representatives of the Otago Regional Council, Aukaha, the NZ Transport Agency, Ministry of Education, Bike Wanaka, Heritage NZ, the Helwick Street Business Group, Lake Wanaka Tourism, Mount Aspiring College, Shaping Our Future, town centre landowners, the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust, Queenstown Airport Corporation [QAC] and three unnamed local residents.
Asked why the QAC should be involved, a council spokeswoman said it was important the council worked alongside the airport "to ensure long-term planning is aligned".
"They are part of the stakeholder group involved in all of our workshops."
Another workshop is planned for May 8.
Workshops are not open to the media.
Ms Dedo said she believed she was chosen for the group because of the work she did with community groups trying to build a "more co-ordinated, connected community infrastructure".
Through her work with LINK she had a handle on the "broad vision" Wanaka's young people had of how the town might develop, which was not much different from the adult view.
"There was a general sense of loving the lakefront.
"That's where they spend a lot of time and they want to feel safe and comfortable doing that.
"But they also recognised parking was important."
Ms Dedo said it was interesting to see the "bold moves" made in Christchurch as a result of that city's earthquake crises.
"They were real catalysts for bold moves and I think here we have a slow crisis that's not always evident.
"I think it's taken us a long time to get our heads around `what does this growth thing really mean?'
"So how do you get the same bold thoughts, or moves, or progress, in a time of less immediate crisis?"
Reminded that the preferred plan is bound to come in for criticism from the public, Ms Dedo said that was the democratic process.
"I can't blame people for thinking all that council stuff is hard to understand.
"We're in this conversation now and I would urge people to join it when they can."
