The council's infrastructure services committee this week voted to form a working party to investigate adding a scenic drive north from Dunedin.
The move followed recommendations by a Waikouaiti Coast Community Board working party last month, suggesting the council form a working party to investigate extending the Southern Scenic Route north from Port Chalmers through coastal areas to Karitane.
The Southern Scenic Route was initiated in Tuatapere, Western Southland, in 1985, and linked Dunedin with southern attractions including the Catlins and Queenstown.
Committee chairman Cr Andrew Noone told Tuesday's meeting a member of the group responsible for devising the Southern Scenic Route had contacted him, offering to discuss the difficulties of establishing such a route with the working party.
However, he had also made it "pretty clear" the Southern Scenic Route was a stand-alone entity.
"They don't want to see that watered down, and we respect that," Cr Noone told the meeting.
Council senior transportation planner Lisa Clifford concurred, saying the existing route was an established brand which aimed to attract visitors to the lower Southland region.
"We can't really take that name," she said.
Instead, the working party should focus on new branded routes within Dunedin, from the end of the Southern Scenic Route at Caversham to Port Chalmers, as well as north from Port Chalmers and along Otago Peninsula.
A new branded scenic route could also extend as far north as Oamaru and loop back to Queenstown, providing "a complete loop of scenic routes", she said in a report to the committee.
"These are all opportunities to be investigated and discussed further within the working party."
The working party was expected to report back by June.
