Right suburb, right site, right scale. It should be a straightforward proposition, yet in Perth, it rarely is.

A proposal can meet every element of that test, sitting on a site zoned specifically to accommodate growth, well within the modest end of what nearby precincts already permit, and still find itself met with the same pitch of community alarm usually reserved for the city’s most contentious towers.

That gap between what a project asks for and how fiercely it is opposed has become one of the more persistent features of Perth’s housing debate, and residents in inner-city South Perth have been watching it play out for more than a decade.

Height limits were relaxed in 2013 specifically to build the density case for a train station, developers responded exactly as invited and the community backlash against the proposals arrived almost immediately.

The local council tried to reverse its own planning changes, the State Government stepped in to overrule it and several of the towers built through that fight now sit comfortably as some of the peninsula’s most recognised and celebrated additions.

The lesson was there for anyone who wanted it – initial objection and eventual outcome are rarely the same thing.

A live proposal on Angelo Street – at a fraction of the height of those original towers – is drawing the same tenor of complaint. If scale were really the issue, this shouldn’t be happening.

What density actually delivers gets lost in these disputes. Neighbourhood centres exist because a critical mass of residents is what makes a supermarket viable, a bus route frequent or a cafe strip worth opening.

A precinct with enough people living near its shops and transport can sustain the amenity residents say they want, and that amenity does not appear by leaving buildings as they are.

None of this suggests community concern is inherently unreasonable. Good planning depends on scrutiny, and Perth is better for having a public genuinely engaged in how its suburbs grow.

But scrutiny should test whether a proposal serves the purpose its zoning was designed for, not simply register alarm at any departure from the familiar.

Western Australia will not close its housing shortfall while precincts already zoned for growth resist the very density which zoning was created to deliver.

The suburbs have been told to expect more people. It is time the debate caught up with that decision.