Plans to overhaul a 2.8km stretch of Beaufort Street include increasing maximum building heights in some areas, minimum lot sizes introduced in others and land set aside for future light rail.

The Inglewood town centre would be revamped with a new multistorey civic centre and five-storey height limit and architectural guidelines standardised for all new commercial developments on the arterial road, which links the CBD to Perth's north-east suburbs.

The proposals cover Beaufort Street between Walcott and Salisbury streets. South of Walcott Street, Beaufort Street is one of Perth's most popular high streets and falls mostly within boundaries of the City of Vincent.

A draft corridor plan released for public comment by the City of Stirling said the Beaufort Street strip had development potential but "quality was not uniform".

"There is an increasingly hostile car-oriented environment with through-traffic travelling aggressively in and through north-eastern Mt Lawley and Inglewood," it said.

"This car-oriented environment, together with a lack of parking definition and poor pedestrian environment, has diminished commercial activity in these locations and is a deficient environment in which to locate further higher density housing, without remediating these deficiencies."

The study included providing for light rail along Beaufort Street, despite no State Government plans to make it a reality. Other changes proposed by Stirling would introduce a minimum residential lot size of 500sqm.

Currently zoning - and therefore lot size - varies significantly along the street.

Building heights in Inglewood could go as high as five storeys but would be restricted to three in Mt Lawley.

Stirling acting director of planning Peter Morrison said the height limits would replace the city's "very loose policy" that mostly enforced two to three storey limits with some exceptions.

He said the city wanted higher density developments but only when they were in keeping with local architecture.

Mr Morrison said they were also keen to avoid creating "one long commercial strip".