Under the suggestions, currently at the concept stage, the 70-hectare district would have a comprehensive facelift over the next few decades.

In a blueprint for how the area might look by 2050, the plans could mean extended car parking areas around Big W and the Bakery Hill Coles supermarkets would eventually transform into mixed-use residential areas.

There would be also greatly extended park spaces which planners hope could be used for events, art installations and street performances.

The ideas are sketched out in the City of Ballarat's Bakery Hill and Bridge Mall Precinct Urban Renewal Plan, which opens on Friday for public consultation.

The plan aims to encourage a greater mix of land use that would bring more residents - including many more students - and kick-start a more vibrant night-time economy.

Planners hope it would reverse the area's recent economic decline and rejuvenate an area of Ballarat that has gained a reputation for closed shopfronts in the past few decades.

Back in May, the council announced its intention to reopen Bridge Mall to traffic after almost four decades of the area being closed to the public.

On its consultation website, the council acknowledges the "many advantages and disadvantages of opening Bridge Mall to traffic" and the "different ideas on the issue."

Under the budget announced later that month, $15 million of council funding was set aside over the next three years to kick-start that project and wider plans for the area.

Ballarat mayor Samantha McIntosh said she hoped the funding would attract hundreds of millions of dollars worth of extra investment into the area.

"This is one of the biggest projects that the council is currently looking at," she told The Courier.

"Our goal is to get the business community embracing this space. We want them to understand the activation this plan is likely to create."

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The latest draft plan outlines an expanded strategy for the whole of the area surrounding Bridge Mall. The area reaches as far as the Ballarat Station precinct in the north and goes down to the Canadian Creek area to the south.

Longer-term possibilities included redeveloping the Yarrowee River corridor as a "new public open space area".

Planners would also work with landowners and state government to put in place a "staged redevelopment" of the car park area around Coles and Woolworths as well as around Big W.

A council-owned car park on Peel Street adjoining Little Bridge Street could also potentially be used as a residential development.

James Guy, the City of Ballarat's executive manager of economic partnerships, said: "This is a long-term plan, it's up to 2050, but what we want to do is put the precursors in now.

"It sends really strong market signals for developers and gives them confidence to start to invest.

"People are saying to us there needs to be a change. There's a really strong appetite for it.

"What we are putting out is that long-term vision so that we can do the short-term seed funding. We want to do the most we can with the $15 million to get it set up."

He said the area could potentially be "Ballarat's Southbank". "This could be our premium offering," he said.

Streets surrounding Bridge Street - Curtis Street and Little Bridge Street - would feel more like streets in their own rights he said, rather than just thoroughfares. "It is a great opportunity for the businesses that are there to get more passing trade."

Cr McIntosh said while work could be started in the first year, work was likely to begin in earnest in the second and third years of the budget.

She said she hoped there could eventually be up to 5000 residents living in the CBD - and that protecting heritage, both Aboriginal and post-contact Gold Rush era, would be key to the plan.

Two public consultations have already taken place in the lead-up to the launch of the new plans, which Mr Guy said could create up to 600 new jobs.

Public submissions of the renewal plan will be open for the next month. Mr Guy said there would be a final proposal set down before councillors before the end of the year.

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He stressed nothing had been finalised yet, and encouraged residents and businesses to have their say whether via the MySay page on the council's website or in person at 16 Bridge Mall.

"Everyone has a voice," he said. "We want confirmation from the community about what their priorities are, and that will frame the design brief for the next stage."

"What we want out of this is whether this overall, long-term 2050 plan is hitting the mark for you."

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