The Ballarat City Council unveiled its Lake Wendouree Master Plan which detailed nine different concepts ranging from from creating lake lighting, an urban beach, recreational and gym facilities to landscape development and the Prisoners of War Story Centre.

Hundreds of people poured through the doors of the Robert Clark Centre at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens on Saturday to have their say on the master plan at a drop-in session on the development. 

Among the most popular topics up for discussion was the urban beach design.

The concept would involve trucking in hundreds of tonnes of sand each summer to build a sandy beach on the southeastern corner of Lake Wendouree.

Residents would not be able to swim in the lake. 

The vast majority of residents who attended the session wrote feedback next to the design dubbing it a “waste of ratepayer money,” and “impractical”. 

Mayor Des Hudson said the purpose of the consultation was to determine what residents considered the highest priority of the designs for future budgets.

A large number of residents at the session called for more seating at the lake, less car parking, more gardens, installation of onsite gym exercise equipment and more walking and bike tracks.

Another popular idea floated was installing lake lighting. 

However, Cr Hudson said installing lighting at the lake would be a complex and costly operation.

“It’s not just the expense of the lighting technology there are also concerns about the environment impact it could have and concerns about wildlife ecology,” he said,   

He said the council were also considering lighting up Victoria Park instead to limit environmental impacts on the lake.

The council estimates more than 700,000 people use the lake each year.  

 A community survey will be available online at the myTownHall page of the City of Ballarat website.

The survey closes Friday September 30 at 5pm. Details: visit ballarat.vic.gov.au