A Citizens’ Assembly for the Northern Beaches?

Paradise on earth? Our recent What’s Next? forum in Mona Vale almost had us convinced that, as several speakers insisted, the Northern Beaches is pretty much it. Even here, though, housing is becoming unaffordable, public transport is difficult, climate change increasingly threatens coastal erosion, storm surges and fire. So change must come. We think the best way to shape that change is to access the deep popular wisdom via a Citizens’ Assembly.

What is a Citizens’ Assembly?

It’s a process where around 40 people – old and young, renters and owners, blue and white collar – come together for one Saturday every 3 weeks for 6-8 meetings. They’re asked to decide, in this case, how the Northern Beaches should accommodate the given target of 5900 new dwellings by 2029. In deliberating together, they can access a broad array of expertise – urban design, transport, infrastructure, planning, economics, social services etc – to facilitate an informed decision. 

Why is a Citizens’ Assembly a good idea?

City-making is not a battle of good against evil. Rather, it’s a complex problem of trade-offs and conflicting benefits that requires a design solution. But design is only as good as its brief. A Citizens’ Assembly can generate that brief to make neighbourhoods fairer and more liveable.

Don’t we already do community engagement?

Up to a point, yes. But the Citizens’ Assembly is different. Standard ‘community engagement’ generally involves the self-selected offering opinions on a policy or development, giving a bullhorn to the self-interested or single-issue groups. Most ordinary people only get involved when something is happening next to their house. Mostly, then, it’s too little, too late, not terribly representative and routinely ignored. The Citizens Assembly, by contrast, encourages a gradual, deliberative consensus to create a Citizens’ Charter that guides all future planning.

How is a Citizens’ Assembly more democratic?

Few of us, either Councils or citizens, really trust the current system. A randomly selected and demographically balanced group will likely be both more representative and more reasonable. Many community members feel more ‘heard’ by a jury of their peers than by a team with a draft plan to defend. Surely it’s worth a go? 

Why would councils take this on?

Councils are often caught in a vice between the proponents of a development and community members who oppose it. Politically, it’s lose-lose. But this ‘us versus them’ idea is too simplistic. Most of us are on both sides of most of these arguments. We want our property values to stay high but also want action on affordability. These decisions about relative value and comfortable compromise belong in community hands and need deep common sense. A Citizens’ Assembly gives community responsibility for the future and Council a mandate to implement that future.

Why should we trust the outcome?

This would be a group of people who live in the area and with the consequences. Just as a legal jury gives a trusted outcome, an 80% consensus on where development should occur, in what form and with what conditions, deserves our trust. 

Why here and what’s next?

The Northern Beaches is not the only place that could benefit but, with 85% support for a Citizen’s Assembly (from our poll at the public forum), the Northern Beaches could show the way to a fairer process and a better future!