You walk out your front door one day and something grabs your attention: your next-door neighbour is knocking down their house, subdividing the block four ways and building four new units. This will be the first time you know about it.

And within 10 business days, you cannot do a thing about it - that's the new deadline imposed by the state government on councils to assess and approve the permit.

Many more residents may soon face this surprise after the government announced changes to its VicSmart planning rules on September 2, meaning developments of up to four homes on a block will now be fast-tracked under the 10-day rule. Previously, fast-tracking applied only to developments of up to two new units.

The government wants a surge in people taking advantage of the new rules, saying fast-tracking will “bypass council processes, complex paperwork and lengthy approvals to boost housing supply”.

I raise this because most readers will be unaware of the change, and because it marks a significant shift in how our suburbs grow and the role of councils in shaping that growth.

A VicSmart application is assessed against preset decision guidelines.

Council officers can judge merit only against those guidelines, must decide within 10 days, cannot request extra information, and affected neighbours have no right of appeal to VCAT if plans meet low-rise townhouse codes.

Many may say this is a good thing, and the City of Greater Geelong supports the need to build more homes, particularly affordable ones.

We also welcome streamlining that helps families own a new home faster - we could all do with less red tape.

But this change also marks a significant reduction in homeowners' power to have a say in what happens next door. Few would doubt that four new homes on a single suburban block has real potential to impact a neighbourhood's liveability.

While the new rules are now a reality, changes of this magnitude deserve wide community discussion and debate; especially when communities weren't consulted before they were introduced.

You may even want to discuss it over the back fence with your neighbour, to find out whether they're planning to take advantage of these new rules.