The Chalmers Community Board has agreed to give $1000 to help pay for an engineer to develop a restoration plan for the decaying Pilot's Wharf at Aramoana.
This comes after the Dunedin City Council's community development committee in July decided to defer a vote on demolishing the wharf until options for its future were investigated further.
The board elected to give $1000 to the Aramoana League at a meeting earlier this week, deciding against giving $2000, which was the amount the league requested.
The board's chairwoman Jan Tucker said it would have liked to have given the full $2000, but it only had limited funds.
League secretary John Davis said the $1000 gave the community's efforts to save the century-old wharf a "boost" and "any amount" of money was a positive.
"This is the first step in a long process," Mr Davis said.
The money would help pay CPG New Zealand marine and coastal engineer Maurice Davis to come up with a restoration plan for the wharf.
The development of a restoration plan was an important part of a process which would hopefully see the wharf saved, Mr Davis said.
The plan would assess whether it was feasible to save the wharf.
