Comprehensive plans have been drafted by developer DOMA Group for the landmark site on which once previously stood the national headquarters of the CSIRO.

The DOMA Group bought the site for $20 million in 2016.

The CSIRO building was flattened earlier this year and the elevated 4.1 hectare site now stands vacant, leaving just the former feeder roads, car parks and established remnant eucalypt trees, nearly all of which will be removed as part of an extensive redevelopment of the property.

The site plans reveal two eight-storey, north-facing towers 15 metres from Limestone Avenue, with smaller two and three-storey townhouses sited progressively further up the slopes of Mt Ainslie.

The twin towers will be visible from Parliament House and will be the tallest structures ever built along Limestone Avenue, a key element fiercely opposed by local residents.

However, the progress of the latest concept, to be known as The Foothills, has progressed so quickly that local residents feel completely powerless to influence the height of the towers they believe to be inappropriately located so close to the historic tree-lined road corridor.

Limestone Avenue is designated as a main avenue under the National Capital Plan, so falls within the remit of the National Capital Authority.

The NCA was consulted as the redevelopment plans were drawn up, and senior executives attended the recent information night convened to discuss the proposal with local residents.

However, two influential, long-term residents of the area, who have provided a number of submissions on the site's redevelopment, dismissed the process as "information, not consultation".

"What's very annoying about this so-called consultation process is that it appears there has been a strategy played out around this development which has left the local community powerless to provide meaningful input," Reid resident Marianne Albury-Colless said.

"The developer's first proposal for 650 apartments on the site was never going to be approved.

"So what emerged as the so-called compromise is a much more fully-developed proposal which includes these two tower blocks.

"And the local residents are now being told that these towers are non-negotiable elements.

"So what was proposed as a consultation is, in fact, just information. It's being put to us as a fait accompli."

The Doma concept masterplan now includes 129 upmarket townhouses and two blocks of 56 apartments each.

The developer describes it as "a diverse mix of . . . one-bedroom apartments through to large penthouse apartments with commanding views and large terraces, but also compact two-bedroom terraces through to four-bedroom townhouses."

Reid resident Christine Vincent said there had been no consultation around the zoning change from "community facility" to permit urban high rise residential development.

"I see this type of development on such a beautiful site as a lost opportunity for the ACT but clearly things have progressed too far for it to be anything but a private residential development," she said.

"What troubles me greatly and many other residents that I speak to in the area is the precedent that such a tall high rise establishes along Limestone Avenue and nearby Ainslie Avenue.

"Once one high-rise like this goes in so close to the avenue, the development precedent is established."

Both residents are troubled, too at how the assessments made against the concept plans are almost dismissive of the concerns raised.

"The provisions describe how these buildings will enhance the character of Limestone Avenue as the main approach to the Australian War Memorial and Anzac Parade," she said.

"To anyone who knows the area and is aware of the visual impact that two tall tower blocks close to the road would have on the streetscape, this is plainly untrue.

"Furthermore, when the need for buildings of appropriate scale on Limestone Avenue was raised, the provisions were amended to remove what was described as ambiguity in the language."

A stone's throw away from The Foothills is Ainslie Village, a social housing complex which, like the CSIRO site, sits on prime inner north real estate. It has been providing accommodation for people on low incomes for some 40 years.

The ACT government has admitted the future of Ainslie Village is "under review".

"What we are witnessing is slow diminution of the important character and style of our older established suburbs," Marianne Albury-Colless said.

"And what angers us is that the ACT government continually promotes so-called community inclusiveness in its planning processes when our experience is that this is far from the reality."