For Brendan and Suzanne Pippen, buying an older home in Duffy was all about the garden and space to live without the threat of high-density development next door.
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Now, as direct neighbours to perhaps two Fluffy homes, the Pippens are worried about the major changes that will come with dual occupancies allowed on the neighbouring blocks.
"It's our forever house. It's little, it's humble, but we're making it our home for a very long time," Brendan Pippen said. "We've put hundreds and hundreds of hours into our backyard and we live out there, but we're going to go from seeing the sky to having multiple houses around us built right up to the fenceline. Our yard is going to be this oasis of green and trees with concrete all around it."
The Pippens bought in 2010 in a zone they thought safe from development, and have transformed it with chook house, enclosed orchard and vegetable gardens.
Dr Pippen has written to Chief Minister Andrew Barr and others in the Assembly inviting them to strand in his back yard to get a sense of the impact of the change to dual occupancy, but said none had so far taken up the offer.
The government is moving to allow Fluffy blocks of 700 square metres or more to be subdivided, with two homes allowed on each block. The planning change, out for comment until May 25, will affect 770 blocks around the city. But as with Dr Pippen's case, Fluffy homes tend to be grouped, reflecting the way Mr Fluffy offered his product door to door, so some streets could see significant change.
The list of Fluffy homes will not be released until late June, so Dr Pippen is only sure of one Fluffy neighbour at the moment, although has been told another is also a Fluffy home. There are a number in his neighbourhood, including in Dixon Drive. Some streets have seven or more Fluffy homes.
One set of Fluffy neighbours has moved out, and Dr Pippen said they had been "absolutely traumatised" about their exposure, having removed the asbestos themselves in 2011 without realising what it was. Dr Pippin is now concerned about his family's safety during the demolitions, worried it could turn into "a maverick approach of just smashing them down". The pilot demolitions are expected in May.
He would ensure his family wasn't home, tape up his house, use sprinklers to damp any airborne fibres and "hope to God we get a northwesterly wind" during the demolitions, he said.
Currently, dual occupancy is only allowed on 800-square metre blocks and the two homes can't be sold as separate titles. The change will allow the Fluffy blocks to be subdivided and sold as separate titles. The homes will be able to be two storeys and take up half the block if both homes have direct street frontage, rather than the existing 33 per cent rule for dual occupancies.
Dr Pippen rejected the government's claim that the increase in density would be modest, believing most blocks would allow a 50 per cent plot ratio and two storeys.
He also dismissed the design criteria included in the planning change as a worthless "piece of marketing". The criteria says new homes should be in keeping with the the existing streetscape and "a visually harmonious streetscape character with variety and interest".
He was concerned about what setbacks will be allowed from boundaries, but the government says the existing dual occupancy rules will apply, and they are stricter than rules for single dwellings.
Dr Pippen has called for a compromise, with bigger setbacks and only single stories, plus allowing attics and basement carparking.
"I just don't think the enormity of what this change is is appreciated by people," he said. "To me the rezoning is not rezoning its cherry picking for the benefit for the government."
