A review paper outlining changes to give surrounding landowners greater flexibility is now out for public feedback. The measures also aim to preserve a buffer from development around the racecourse. Miners Rest is one of the fastest growing areas in the municipality.

The proposals are a step away from going to the planning minister for approval.

In October last year, councillors approved proposed changes to a system introduced in 2012. While the racecourse - and its use as a training hub - has expanded dramatically since, some private landowners in the surrounding Dowling Forest Equine Precinct have felt left behind.

The changes would not directly apply to the racecourse and its immediate area but to properties in the wider area.

Racing in Ballarat - despite the recent controversy surrounding high-profile trainer David Weir - has been booming in recent years.

The Courier's senior sports journalist David Brehaut sums up the changes:

"Racing in Ballarat has gone ahead in leaps and bounds," he said. "A lot of funding has come in for infrastructure. They've pulled down the old race day stables and built new ones, they've totally re-modelled that area. The uphill training track they've got there, as a real point of difference.

"And in the last 12 to 18 months they've built the Polytrack, which is one of only two all-weather racetracks in Victoria."

Mr Brehaut said the effect of the investment has been clear: "What Ballarat has done is they have attracted new trainers, left, right and centre within the racecourse perimeter."

That last phrase is the crucial one. With most of the new trainers stabling their horses on track, the planning restrictions have not encouraged investment in the wider area - which is privately held by a variety of different landowners.

Councillor Grant Tillett, who has been heavily involved both the Miners Rest Township Plan and the review of the Dowling Forest Equine Precinct planning controls, told The Courier he had predicted problems with the previous planning changes.

Once involved in the racing industry himself, including as harness racing board officer, Cr Tillett said the racecourse had been a success - but that some conditions had failed.

"I supported the plan but I did not support the conditions attached to the plan," he said. "The conditions were too onerous and wrong from the start. "

"The condition that killed everything was you needed a thoroughbred horse licence."

Some landowners have complained the conditions had diminished prices.

The review documents make clear that the "Special Use Zone 7" planning controls directly covering the racecourse, which is run by the Ballarat Turf Club, were not part of the review.

"The Racecourse appears to be operating without issue," the review paper states.

"The [existing] controls have not facilitated an uptake of land for thoroughbred training purposes as the restrictiveness of the provisions is not attractive or viable for trainers looking to establish a new facility."

The main change is that area subject to the most restrictive planning controls - known as Special Use Zone 13 - would reduce and only affect land most directly connected to the racecourse.

Much of it would be re-zoned to the newly introduced "Special Use Zone 19", which would allow landowners to broaden the land use - crucially without the need for a thoroughbred training licence.

In the words of the strategic planners, land would accommodate "a wider range of complementary equine activities." The land would still be available for thoroughbred training if the need was there.

The likely changes to the planning scheme follow the approval of the Miners Rest Township Plan last December after years of discussion. The plan outlines a strategy to protect the racecourse and ensure the Dowling Forest Equine Precinct acted as a buffer to "encroaching urban development".

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