Wagga City Council recently gave the green light for a developer to build two-storey units at the rear of existing properties on Simmons Street, which drew the ire of neighbours at this week's council meeting.

The decision was not the first time the council has supported projects of a similar nature.

Central Wagga resident Spiros Stathis attempted to convince councillors that the housing development was at the expense of the city's conservation area before they made their decision.

Mr Stathis said if the council continued down the path where concessions were made in heritage sites then it risked losing the character of the area forever.

He said across the world communities were upholding the heritage of their towns - from thatched roofs in rural England to white-painted homes in the Greek Isles.

Mr Stathis said people who wanted to live in Wagga's conservation area should comply with the rules rather than diverge.

However, architect Gioia Gianniotis - said higher density living in Central Wagga was unavoidable and the city must be flexible to achieve a balance between maintaining heritage and promoting growth.

"It needs to occur and we can't continue to keep developing the outskirts of Wagga," she said. "We can still maintain the streetscape ... while also working towards a modern approach to solutions."

Ms Gianniotis said the council needed to look to some of its city counterparts for direction. She said capital cities such as Melbourne and Sydney were finding solutions that balance growth and maintain heritage conservation.

"The fact that we have to go higher density in the centre of Wagga is unavoidable and we have to try to achieve a balance," she said.

Wagga council's city development manager Paul O'Brien said the council has plans to look at the entire heritage building stock within the conservation area soon, and come up with new controls that "preserve and enhance" the character of the area.

This review was sparked by some recent development applications submitted to the council regarding secondary dwellings off the rear lanes in heritage areas, Mr O'Brien said.

He said the council needed to go back to basics and consider the heritage conservation area as a whole in order to deal with issues that have been emerging.

"The heritage value of a lot of these areas rest predominately with the streetscapes, so ... the original homes and facades presented to the street," he said.

"To achieve that you need to look at the items that are really important to protect and those streetscapes are really important to protect."