The Cox Humphries Moss director said his firm had designed appropriate residential towers along Melrose Drive in Woden town centre on behalf of the Land Development Agency.

"We thought it was pretty good; it had active street frontages and varying accommodation," Mr Moss said at the Density by Design planning forum.

"What happened in the end, the public outcry was so great that [then Planning Minister] Simon Corbell called it in and it is no longer a project.

"Another one down there was also squashed because it was too big."

Mr Moss told the forum, convened by Canberra Urban and Regional Futures, more thought had to be given to where people were going to live as Canberra grew.

"If we want to preserve our suburbs and people want to live in high-rise developments, then put the people in high-rise developments along transport corridors; keep the suburban developments as they are and keep the open spaces."

Mr Moss warned if this did not happen, either the suburbs would have to be developed, or Canberrans would lose their open spaces to development, which would be catastrophic, or the city would not grow.

Mr Moss said older people who were responsible for the Y plan and transport planning were most likely to complain about higher-density development.

In Woden, community groups were more hostile to change than in Belconnen.

"What's happening in Belconnen is there are lots of buildings being built because there isn't as much kickback," Mr Moss said.

"I suspect in a few years time the good burghers of Woden will say, 'Why is so much going on in Belconnen? Why are there so many theatres and restaurants and various things?' It is because there is development."

Inner South Community Council spokeswoman Anne Forrest said the community would be more on board if Woden developments had not produced such ugly outcomes.

Mr Moss said: "I firmly believe we as a profession and the government have let the community down in so far as we come to your meetings and the government says to you, `We will build things according to certain guidelines', and then we don't."

Critically, the government and community had to agree on parameters for public housing redevelopment and higher density along transport corridors and in town centres, and stick to them.

The director of planning at the Molonglo Group, Gordon Lowe, said planning previously dominated by cars had succumbed to another mode of transport, even though designing urban form to last for centuries.

"The truth of the matter is lots of our urban areas are being designed for a 30-tonne, 25-metre-long garbage truck," he said.

Sustainability facilitator Gillian King said if consultation and collaboration processes were not right, combative and stressful outcomes followed.

Transparency was vital.