THE City of Greater Bendigo wants to set aside nearly $6 million for industrial land in the upcoming budget.
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The document - unveiled on Monday - reveals the council wants to set aside $5.95 million for an "industrial land strategy".
Bendigo's stock of industrial land is dwindling and the council says that could affect the city's businesses and jobs if it is exhausted over the next decade.
The council is yet to finalise negotiations on new sites but does want to have money available in case it needs to act fast, director of corporate performance Andrew Cooney said.
"As you can imagine with land, sometimes you have to have the money there ready, especially in the market we have at the moment" he said.
The council is yet to set its sights on a particular piece of land but hopes to do so at some point in the 2021/22 financial year, Mr Cooney said.
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"It's a pretty big process to find land, consult with the team about what businesses are looking for, and exploring the zonings," he said.
"We've got some options available."
Mr Cooney said discussions with potential sellers are ongoing.
The council is yet to disclose who it is discussing land purchases with but has previously listed a number of sites throughout the greater Bendigo area that showed potential.
They have included an area south of Marong, a document publicly released last September shows.
A bid to compulsorily acquire land over the other side of the suburb in 2018 failed when the state's planning minister Richard Wynne overruled the council's purchase bid.
Council officers had opted to set aside $6 million because that was "a best estimate" of what any eventual sale and development costs might be, but that could end up being higher or lower.
"There's plenty more work to do yet and this is not something that would happen right away," Mr Cooney said.
The council hopes to buy multiple lots of land in the coming financial year, he said.
That could range from public spaces for community use through to industrial sites, Mr Cooney said.
He said councils followed strong protocols for buying land that are set out in state legislation.
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