Council staff have recommended elected officials back the finding when it meets on Thursday night to discuss three changes to heritage protections in the centre of Bendigo.

The 40 Winks building has become the centre of debate about what constitutes significant heritage in Bendigo.

Council staff have argued a heritage overlay should be placed on the site because it is linked to the historic Bendigo Timber Company and exemplifies modernist building styles from the late 1950s.

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Developers attempting to transform the site into a 202-room hotel were concerned about what the overlay could mean for any redevelopment at the site.

The council gave the hotel planning approval while applying for an interim heritage order last month.

An independent panel has found that a heritage overlay would be appropriate as long as it applied only to the building, excluding its verandahs or any outdoor areas that might be part of the long-gone timber yards.

Council staff said heritage overlay would not block any future demolition but would mean more detailed examinations would have to take place before the building could come down.

"It would provide an opportunity for a relevant condition to be placed on the permit, such as requiring the photographic recording of the place prior to demolition (for example)," they told councillors in a report ahead of Thursday's meeting.

The independent panel recommended a series of updates around which parts of the property would sit under the overlay.

It made a similar ruling about the nearby Butts Hotel property at the corner of Williamson and McLaren Street.

Developers say that the hotel building might be significant but two other buildings and a car park are not.

City officers recommended councillors endorse recommendations for both sites.

They also recommended scrapping a past proposal to include a cottage behind the former Doherty's garage in St Andrews Avenue.

Recently-surfaced photographs suggest the structure is not a remodelled 1870s hawker's cottage as previously thought.

Council officers say the overlay can be redrawn to keep the culturally significant garage itself.

They made no recommendation to alter their heritage push for another high profile site, though.

The panel rejected the Bendigo Bowling Centre's concerns that a heritage overlay at its Hargreaves Street site would make "the sale of the business impossible".

The centre had argued that its building should not be included because a key council document did not recognise post-war Modernism as a major theme.

The panel agreed with the council that the building was a rare surviving example of a 1960s Modernist bowling alley in the Bendigo region.

The council will have one more say on changes before the matter goes to the state's planning minister for consideration.

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