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ABSTRACT Nature‐based solutions are increasingly recognised for their potential to address multiple sustainable development goals and transform degraded urban areas into liveable spaces. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), increasingly considered a sub‐set of these, are widely used to improve urban flood and climate resilience. Although they can enhance water quality, water quantity, biodiversity and amenity when implemented effectively, they often underperform, underdeliver and are designed with a single goal in mind. These complex demands require new ways of working to integrate diverse perspectives into a single scheme or space, such as placemaking, which shapes spaces with local people to enhance connection, meaning and long‐term care. This paper argues for leveraging nature‐based water management to maximise urban resilience and proposes a community‐led framework to ensure that sustainable, multi‐benefit solutions are designed with and for local citizens. We introduce the UK's Defra‐funded ‘SuDS+’ project, which pilots SuDS through a community lens. Based on visioning, prioritisation, co‐design, implementation and legacy, a framework is being tested in County Durham (UK) to ensure community involvement at every stage. This approach expands beyond traditional flood risk management in several ways. We present empirical examples from the community ‘visioning’ and ‘prioritisation’ stages that initiate this placemaking process, then demonstrate how suggestions can be shortlisted using an innovative filtering tool to transform ideas into coherent ‘SuDS+ concepts’. These steps balance flood risk (SuDS) with community (‘+’) needs ahead of the co‐design and implementation phases. We then share a series of reflections and refinements. Our research demonstrates that community members offer a broader range of ideas and are more likely to engage with, understand, support and care for solutions that they co‐design within their neighbourhood. Significant in‐person engagement is crucial as urban flooding is not a top priority for them; jobs, housing, education, accessible spaces and a sense of pride and ownership are. Leveraging these priorities to design multifunctional solutions for (and by) flood risk management could catalyse sustainable urban development and reveal the true potential of nature‐based flood management. Such an approach could transform the water sector by fostering cross‐sector collaborations to generate cost‐effective, high‐quality spatial and socially meaningful solutions. Moving forward, participatory governance, effective partnerships, diverse skills, robust monitoring frameworks and realistic policy updates are required to streamline SuDS delivery, avoid duplication and demonstrate multi‐benefit impacts.