A group of residents concerned about the City of Greater Bendigo's plans to demolish the Kangaroo Flat leisure centre have come up with an alternative plan for the site.
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The group, Save the Kangaroo Flat Leisure Centre, went to a designer to have a new plan drawn up.
The plan places the $30 million proposed indoor pool complex behind the existing leisure centre.
Group member John Walsh said they believed there was room on the site for both.
Mr Walsh said the group's alternative plan meant the new centre would encroach slightly into a tree area, oval and carpark.
"We haven't changed the plan of the pool whatsoever, we have just changed where it's sitting," Mr Walsh said.
"(Council) wanted the swimming pool in a northerly direction - it's in more of a northerly direction now with our plan," he said.
"We've come up with this alternative plan which we want the public to see," Mr Walsh said.
Mr Walsh said council had been gradually asking community groups using the leisure centre to move to other venues.
"They want to make it a white elephant so that they can knock it down," he said.
He said, instead council had its mind set on a multi-million dollar "Taj Mahal".
"They want to build this $35 million swimming pool which (ratepayers) can't afford," he said.
"It effects every other project people want to happen in Bendigo," he said.
Mr Walsh said his group was not against the proposed indoor pool facility.
"There's not a problem, we've never argued about that," he said.
City of Greater Bendigo chief executive Craig Niemann said he had seen the group's alternative plan.
"There's complications around the site in terms of junior sport and the general layout of the site," he said.
He said under the alternative plan, the pool complex would encroach onto the oval at the back - a problem for the sports games that are played there.
"The council hasn't had a talk about that plan at all, it's really just another concept at this point in time," Mr Niemann said.
He said in earlier days of the planning process for the new centre, council tried to incorporate the existing leisure centre, but that expert architects advised it would not work.
"We understand that does mean that there needs to be community group provided with alternative arrangements," he said.
Mr Niemann said Mr Walsh's comparison of the proposed centre with the Taj Mahal was overstated.
"We are at a point where we're providing the guidance to our architects to move with the design of the existing site," he said.
