The City Renewal Authority's Braddon Place Plan, published on Wednesday, intends to make pedestrians the priority in the inner north suburb, proposing district-wide bike lanes and wider footpaths as part of a "low vehicle-speed environment".

Pop-up gardens and parklets - footpath extensions commonly used for outdoor dining - are also expected to spring up across Braddon, as the authority seeks to improve the area's public spaces amid a construction and population boom.

The authority's chief executive, Malcolm Snow, said it was too early to know whether the proposed changes would result in a reduction in the number of on-street carparks in Braddon.

On-street car parking is at a premium across the suburb, in particular on Lonsdale Street, the district's trendy shopping and dining strip.

"The current layout of on-street parking in Braddon could be reconfigured to incorporate bike lanes and wider footpaths, and as a result improve the area’s public spaces," Mr Snow said.

"Whether the amount of on-street parking changes will be determined through the design process."

Braddon resident Steve Watson, who owned an art gallery on Lonsdale Street for close to two decades, feared the area would "drown in its own success" unless infrastructure - such as carparking - was upgraded to support the district's growth.

"The process is just back to front in that they've encouraged this urban development here without doing much about the infrastructure," Mr Watson said.

"The parking issue has been an issue in Braddon for almost the last 10 years ... and [the plan] will just push cars up into more streets."

John Ross, owner of Lonsdale Street Cyclery, said a lack of carparking hurt businesses, who had to rely on foot traffic for the majority of its customers.

Ben Ilic, co-owner of Asian eating house Lazy-Su, said retailers wanted to be consulted on the future of Braddon.

The City Renewal Authority outlined its intention to work with traders as the project evolves, and said it had interviewed local retailers about their concerns for the district during consultation on the plan.

Insufficient car parking was identified during those talks. However, several retailers who spoke with The Canberra Times on Wednesday, said they did not know the plan was being developed.

The authority has proposed the idea of establishing a "Braddon town team", a team of local traders and residents which would work with the government to implement aspects of the plan.

"I don't think retailers have been explicitly consulted," Mr Ilic said.

"People will come past and give you a form or something and you don't have time to look at it then and there, so you kind of just put it aside.

"For us it needs to be within the structure of how businesses work, not within how governments work, from 9am to 5pm ... we need to [organise a time] to probably sit there and have an open discussion with someone about what we'd like to see."

Under the plan, retail trading hours could also be extended in a bid to grow the night-time economy in the district, which is bounded by Girrahween Street, Torrens Street, Cooyong Street and Northbourne Avenue.

A program of events, including a year long trial of monthly fresh food and artisan markets, could be held.

The authority's plan highlights the need to improve the area's public spaces to accomodate Braddon's growing population, while retaining its gritty and creative roots.

Braddon was once dominated by car yards and garages, but cheap rents attracted creatives and entrepreneurs to the neighbourhood.

More than 90,000 people visit the suburb every day, according to the authority's figures. The suburb's median age is 29, while more than a third of its population earns above $78,000 a year.

The plan said some traders had raised concerns about the concentration of activity in and around
Lonsdale Street, and flagged a need to integrate the surrounding streets to create a coherent precinct.

Mr Snow said improved public spaces would help complement the high-density developments reshaping the suburb.

"Braddon is an evolving neighbourhood that has developed a distinctive character of its own, separate but complementary to that of Civic” Mr Snow said.

“It has grown from a semi-industrial area into a popular entertainment and retail district despite the quality of its public spaces rather than because of them."