Bendigo’s long-term city development plan, believed to the the first of its kind in Victoria, is expected to transform the regional centre over the next 30 years. 

Approximately 70 infrastructure projects, designed to cater for a population of 200,000 and thousands more workers by 2050, were released for public consultation at a council meeting on Wednesday evening. 

Deputy mayor Rod Fyffe said the state government approached the City of Greater Bendigo to develop the collaborative project, titled Plan Greater Bendigo.  

“This is really exciting. This is something that will really give this community an edge,” Cr Fyffe said.  

Mayor Margaret O’Rourke said while other regional cities had long-term plans in place, none were as big or state government-initiated. 

“We were the first city approached for this process,” she said. 

A number of government departments, council staff, local stakeholders and business groups brainstormed the current infrastructure projects, 24 of which are said to be transformational. 

The City of Greater Bendigo is hopeful of whittling the 70 projects down to 15, with the help of the public, before the second round of community consultation, expected in September-October. 

Cr O’Rourke urged ratepayers to provide feedback to the draft plan, which is open to the public until April 28. 

The Plan Greater Bendigo will be finalised in January 2018. 

Funding for the myriad of proposals was a “secondary discussion”, according to Cr O’Rourke, who suggested the city had a good history of leveraging state and federal funding for projects.    

The majority of infrastructure projects rely on a mixture of state, federal, private and council funds.

"I don't think you can limit your visions in the early stages of consultation until you seek that feedback,” Cr O’Rourke said.  

You can provide your feedback to the proposals on the Bendigo Advertiser’s survey below. 

A link to the City of Greater Bendigo’s official survey is below 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/plangreaterbendigo