The former Ballarat Orphanage is set for new life after years of planning.
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Works have begun on the Victoria Street site, which has sat dormant for years and been subject to a number of potential face-lifts which were stalled by heritage concerns.
Ballarat City Council has confirmed four planning permits had been issued for the site.
The plan includes a permit for the former toddlers' block, which grants the use for a kindergarten, a permit for a supermarket in the former school house building, a permit for an eight-lot subdivision for residential lots from the Victoria Street service road and a permit for an additional two-lot subdivision, which separates the commercial areas from the residential areas within the development plan.
Council said works on the approved subdivision permit and kindergarten permit would begin shortly, while works on the supermarket planning permit will be considered at VCAT in the coming months to review the development of the VicRoads intersection layout on the corner of Victoria Street and Stawell Street South.
The kindergarten and supermarket applications may not come as a surprise to many following the property, as both ideas had long been in the works.
READ MORE: Anger at state of former Ballarat Orphanage
Community members have previously voiced concern about the heritage building was undergoing "demolition by neglect."
Ballarat historian Anne Beggs-Sunter told The Courier in 2017 she believed the state of the orphanage was "depressing" and said it was an eyesore as people entered the city from Victoria Street.
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