A community forum will brainstorm new ways of engaging the public on major developments, due to Canberrans' growing unease about how planning decisions are being made in the city.
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The Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy's (CAPaD) public discussion about community engagement in Canberra will unite community councils and residents groups this Sunday to find practical solutions to one of the most fraught areas of public policy in the ACT.
The group said the adverse reaction to redevelopments at Manuka Oval, Yarralumla Brickworks, West Basin, Currong Flats and public housing in Weston Creek showed the current method of consultation was little more than "lip service".
"We recognise that a city doesn't stay the same but change with the evolving times but the changing times also involves the people who live there now not just the people who want to make money out of particular aspects of development," CAPaD committee member Trevor Powell said.
"Our thesis really and this has been established in different places around the world, before you actually put specific proposals, you use the citizens to help explain and to guide the planning processes so in fact you end up with a win-win in that situation rather than a win-lose situation which appears to be the modern trend."
Another committee member Bob Douglas said while citizen juries and assemblies could play a part in helping communities feel more involved in the planning process. there was no "fixed formulae" for getting consultation right.
"We're not going to change the world overnight but we do want to give the community a chance to engage and to decide how they would best communicate," Mr Douglas said.
He said while no members of the ACT's Legislative Assembly had been invited, all were welcome to come.
Fourteen of the current 25 members signed up to CAPaD's chater of participatory democracy before the ACT election (however current ACT planning minister Mick Gentleman did not).
The charter states: "I will promote and support participatory and deliberative methods for policy, planning and legislative decisions."
ACT Labor and the Greens also pledged to extend participatory democracy in their parliamentary agreement.
On Tuesday it was revealed Chief Minister Andrew Barr will consider citizens' juries in his push for wider consultation.
The forum comes a week after Canberra's new head of planning, Ben Ponton, foreshadowed a change in the way his directorate would consult with the public.
"If you have people joining you on the journey early as you work up the proposal, you're going to have a smoother ride," Mr Ponton told Fairfax Media.
Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy's public discussion about community engagement in Canberra is on Sunday, April 30, at the Folk Dance Canberra Hall at 114 Maitland Street in Hackett from 2-5pm.
