Councillors at their meeting last night postponed adopting draft amendments to Wagga's Development Control Plan until a broad heritage assessment is completed as part of council's forthcoming CBD Masterplan.

The proposed changes, which had a particular focus on laneways, would have made it easier to construct "well-designed" rear extensions and secondary dwellings while maintaining the streetscapes in the tightly-controlled heritage conservation area.

Work is scheduled to begin in June on the CBD Masterplan, a high level planning guide for the city centre, which council expects will take about a year to complete.

Councillors voted unanimously to delay making changes to the Development Control Plan, a document used by council when assessing development applications, after hearing from two residents opposed to the amendments.

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Central Wagga resident Stephen Lawler slammed the proposed amendments as "absolutely ludicrous", saying they could "open doors" to developers without regard to the community.

He said accused council of potentially "destroying every tree, flower and blade of grass in central Wagga heritage conservation area".

Mr Lawler said he had been elected by other concerned residents to represent them publicly at last night's meeting.

A report prepared for councillors states that 1300 Central residents were notified about the draft DCP amendments - which were on public exhibition for three months in 2020 - resulting in 21 submissions that "demonstrate a range of positions".

But Mr Lawler said residents received a letter from council more than a year ago and weren't aware the DCP was going to be voted on until they read about it in Friday's The Daily Advertiser.

Council's director of regional activation Michael Keys defended council's consultation process, saying the DCP changes had been "underway for about 12 months".

"It's not something that we're going to rush through," he said.

Councillor Tim Koschel said he was not opposed to infill in Central but didn't support taking a "blanket approach" to developments in the heritage conservation area.

"I know it does take a lot more work for it to come through for us with individual cases for us to look at but I think we do need to listen to residents and listen to concerns," he said.

Councillor Paul Funnell said overdevelopment was having a "negative social impact" in the central heritage area.

"There is this absolute loss of privacy ... when people buy these properties in a beautiful part of our CBD they move there [because] that is what they like," he said.