The Electoral Commission page on referendums and polls says: "A local government council may elect to conduct a referendum and, on most occasions this is in conjunction with a local government election. "A referendum can only be held about the following: - the number of councillors - the establishment or abolition of wards - mayoral election - distribution of councillors across wards"
This means Council can't hold an electoral referendum about the Springwood Town Centre Project.
Section 15 of the Local Government Act says: "A constitutional referendum is a poll initiated by a council in order to give effect to a matter referred to in section 16." Section 16 says: "A council may not do any of the following unless approval to do so has been given at a constitutional referendum: (a) divide its area into wards or abolish all wards in its area, (b) change the basis on which the mayor attains office (that is, by election by the councillors or by election by the electors), (c) increase or decrease the number of councillors in accordance with the limits under section 224, (d) change the method of ordinary election of councillors for an area divided into wards. (e) (Repealed)"
This seems to say a referendum can only be used for these purposes.
The Electoral Commission conducted a poll in Manly Council in May 2008 Electoral Commission web page about the poll says: "A poll in relation to the use of the Seaforth TAFE site and town centre was held on Saturday 3 May 2008. Only those electors included on the roll, as prepared for the defined area (PDF) or (Google map) were entitled to vote." The poll was conducted in May 2008, which was not during an election. This implies a poll can be held at any time. Manly doesn't have wards, and the poll was only for part of the Manly local government area. This implies Council can decide which area to include. It could, for example, decide to include part of Ward 2 and part of Ward 3.
The Electoral Commission page on referendums and polls says: "A poll may be held in conjunction with a local government election on any issue. Local councils can hold a poll to test whether people either support or oppose a proposed action on an issue. Voting on a poll issue is not compulsory. The result of the poll is not binding on the council." This seems to imply that a poll can only be held in conjunction with a local government election, but the fact that they held a special poll in Manly means they can be held at any time.
Council has in the past held polls over the telephone. Participants are usually selected at random, and asked a set of standard questions.
Demographic questions can be included in the, such as age and education. This could be used to try to correct for errors because certain types of people are more willing to participate than other, or easier to contact.
A survey form could be sent through the mail, to everyone in the designated area. People might feel better about this method, because everyone was included. But the response rate is likely to be low. And people who feel strongly about the issue might be more likely to respond, which might skew the results.
Council could hold a workshop on the issue, where the participants are given a briefing first, in order to help them make an informed decision. They could hear presentations from advocates from the different sides of the debate. They could hold small group discussions, in order to clarify their thoughts. And, at the end of the workshop, they could cast their vote, using a secret ballot.
Invitations could be sent out to people selected at random from the designated area. Or everyone in the defined area could be invited. They could be asked to RSVP ahead of time, in order to be ready for the numbers.
Workshops like this are already being held in Australia, and it should be easy to find people with the skills and experience needed to conduct them.
The International Association for Public Participation, for example, has members throughout Australia. They have a Public Participation Toolbox which lists 47 ways to consult the community, and several of them seem relevant here.
Some people have been saying they want to poll to be "definitive". They want a clear answer, so there aren't arguments afterwards on what it means.
This might require that people see drawings and an accurate description of what is being proposed before making their decision.
But most of this information probably won't be available until after the tenders have been submitted. This is because some of the tenderers might not want their ideas copied by the others.
Perhaps this could be done in two stages: