Attempts to broker a compromise in a long-running dispute between two recreation groups over reserve land in Waikouaiti has been unsuccessful and the community board is to recommend which of the two gets to develop and use the land.
The Waikouaiti Golf Club and the Highcliff Trust, a Dunedin equestrian group, are in a stand-off over an 18ha block in the Waikouaiti Recreation Reserve, which the golf club leases for grazing.
The Highcliff Trust has $100,000 to develop a top-class equestrian event course, which it has said will enable it to host the 2012 Springston Trophy, as Dunedin lacks a suitable course.
A report to this week's Waikouaiti Coast Community Board meeting says that after the trust made its proposal, the golf club put a competing proposal to the board, to extend its course from nine to 18 holes and develop the block it leases.
Negotiations failed, and the two groups had been asked to provide detailed business plans that the board could consider at its January meeting.
Waikouaiti Coast Community Board chairman Gerard Collings said that despite "lots of effort to try and accommodate both", the talks had been unsuccessful.
Inevitably, one of the groups would be disappointed by the community board's recommendation to the Dunedin City Council, Mr Collings said.
Highcliff Trust president Gary Cole said that while he believed the row was at an impasse nearly a year ago, then community board chairman Alasdair Morrison had hoped a compromise was possible and had worked hard to achieve it.
Mr Cole said the trust turned down a less attractive steeper block that would have needed expensive earthworks.
If the trust was unsuccessful in its bid for the land, Dunedin would lose the chance to host the Springston Trophy, he said.
The Springston, the "Olympics for under-21s in pony club", would see about 50 teams of six from around the South Island compete, Mr Cole said.
Waikouaiti Golf Club president Richard Russell said he hoped to persuade the board to "see sense" and allow the golf club to expand.
"We'll be giving it our very best shot," he said.
The Waikouaiti Clay Target Club also leased part of the Waikouaiti Recreation Reserve and it made little sense to have guns and ponies in close proximity, Mr Russell said.
