CAMBRIDGE — Plans For a $750,000 Main Street makeover will go to public input only if the federal government chips in half of the cost of the project.

Coun. Pam Wolf called for a pause in the project, to give time for a heritage impact assessment and the design for sidewalks and overhead canopies between Ainslie and Water streets.

“I want to make sure this project is done correctly and not pushed through too quickly,” she told Monday’s city council meeting.

The work is intended to help a developer and his plans to renovate and restore seven buildings. David Gibson was a key player in the renaissance of downtown Waterloo and sees downtown Cambridge as another downtown that’s ready to blossom.

He spent $3.5 million a year ago on storefronts and intends to spend millions more on renovations to attract stores and restaurants back to the core.

He asked the city to help clean up the public areas in front of the buildings – including the former Right House department store—to make them more pedestrian friendly and visually appealing with new trees.

The city has $350,000 set aside for Hespeler renewal projects, but moved the cash to the Galt project to meet the short application window for a federal government southern Ontario development grant.

Wolf said people are worried about all the money being spent and the fact there’s been no public input on the design that’s proposed for construction in summer. Work has to be done by 2011 to be eligible for the federal grant.

Coun Karl Kiefer said the first step is getting the federal money. “If we don’t get the funding, the project would be dead.”

Mayor Doug Craig said the city is facing tough competition, after hearing “three excellent applications” in the city were turned down recently.

“I would say the odds are not in our favour, to some extent,” he said.

Coun. Rick Cowsill supports the Main Street work and asked that the meeting minutes show council agreed to hold public hearings, if federal money was granted.