Ballarat councillors unanimously voted in favour of the $2.2 million Black Hill Reserve draft masterplan at the council meeting on Wednesday night.

Plans included a redevelopment of the Black Hill lookout, improving and redeveloping existing mountain bike trails on the slopes, investment into vegetation and wetlands in the lower-lying area, new toilets and creating access to historical features of the reserve where safe.

The upper car park of the lookout will be redeveloped with space for 30 vehicles and buses, along with new barbecue shelters and picnic facilities. 

Earlier this week residents criticised the council’s predicted timeline in the draft plan, which outlined an end of date of up to 20 years away.

The draft outlined the millions of dollars needed to reinvent the city icon were subject to funding and could be “implemented progressively over a 10 to 20-year period”.  At the council meeting, council city strategy general manager Natalie Reiter said the timeline had been outlined because funding to complete the works was not in the council’s current capital expenditure.

She said there was scope for external funding and extended submissions during budget time, which could speed up the pace. 

Councillor Belinda Coates said the redevelopment had been a long time coming for the “neglected” precinct. She said consultation with the wider public included the input of children from Black Hill Primary School. 

“This is a very well-loved area and has a strong and deep historical connection to the city of Ballarat,” Cr Coates said. 

“It’s extremely positive that we have this input to take that forward and start lobbying for budget contributions. 

“It is not necessarily the high-costs requests that could quickly improve amenity. There are many aspects that are cost-effective and could be implemented quickly.”

The draft plan will be on public exhibition until the end of October. A final plan is expected to be complete by December.