A group of Reid residents has called for the scrapping of plans to allow 15-storey developments on Cooyong Street, as two government ministers prepare to give evidence on the changes to a Legislative Assembly committee this week.
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The residents gathered at the site on Sunday to raise concerns about overcrowding, inadequate parking and the removal of 180 trees.
They said the rezoning of the area, home to the Allawah, Bega and Currong public housing flats and some church buildings, needed to be cut down to no more than eight storeys.
The variations to the Territory Plan could allow up to 2300 residents in an area now occupied by 550 tenants.
The area in question has three-storey buildings and one non-compliant eight-storey building.
Currently Residential Zone 4, the 12 people who spoke to Fairfax Media on Sunday said they would not object to a shift to zone 5, allowing a maximum of six storeys.
Chris Emery, the co-ordinator of the residents opposed to the changes, said the plans were inconsistent with the nature of the area and other Canberra suburbs.
''Turner and the Braddon commercial areas are not getting this,'' he said. ''There's a development they did in Turner which went from eight storeys and then was set down to three storeys, and was done quite sympathetically.''
He said he also had doubts about the public spending on the development. ''The economics of this development are also very questionable, as they're only going to have 10 per cent social housing - that means 324 apartments of social housing need to go elsewhere.
''My approximate cost of doing that is about $100 million.''
David Theater, a resident of adjoining Argyle Square, said there was no need for the scale of development proposed. ''Ainslie Avenue is already one of the densest areas for population per square kilometre in Canberra,'' Dr Theater said.
The draft variation would allow 15-storey developments on both sides of the Cooyong Street and Ainslie Avenue corner, with several 10-storey towers then set down from both sides of these peaks.
The areas facing Cooyong Street, near the rear of the Canberra Centre, would be converted to Commercial Mixed-Use Zone 5.
Mr Emery said only about seven trees would be saved.
''There are about 180 mature trees in this area, including all the trees along Cooyong Street, [which] are going to go, they haven't been registered,'' he said.
Mr Emery said only four of the 137 submissions received by the ACT Planning and Land Authority supported the proposed rezoning, with the height and scale of the buildings a major concern.
Parking would be increased to 1628 basement spots in addition to some surface-level parking, which exceeds the 1434 spaces required in a 2011 planning report for the site.
However, the 1434 figure is based on about one permanent residential car space for each of 1158 units, which is likely to be inadequate for actual resident numbers.
Housing Minister Shane Rattenbury will give evidence to the committee on Monday, and Sustainable Development Minister Simon Corbell will give evidence on Wednesday.
Mr Rattenbury said on Sunday night he was ''well aware'' of the community concerns, but this was not yet about a specific development application. ''It is important to recognise that it is about the zoning of the site. There is still a lot of work to be done to the specific developments which might follow.
''Housing ACT is the developer, and the specifics of the development would be a matter for them.''
The residents are not part of a formal organisation, but posed with posters made up by the Reid Residents Association. Five of them have addressed the Assembly committee.
A spokesperson for Mr Corbell said concerns of some residents were one of the factors that led him to refer the draft variation to the Assembly's planning committee for inquiry.
