A landowner's request to buy part of a 20m wide, C-shaped reserve on the bank of Kaikorai Stream will be given further consideration, following a meeting of the Green Island Esplanade Reserve hearings committee in Dunedin.
The Esplanade Reserve was acquired by the Dunedin City Council following the subdivision of railway land in 1993, and has since been largely untouched, and not actively managed.
An adjoining landowner wanted to purchase the industrial-zoned land at Green Island between the Southern Motorway and Main South Rd for possible development, reducing the width of part of the esplanade reserve from 20m to 3m, but the committee recommended last month it be retained by the council.
Committee member Colin Weatherall said the committee heard further evidence on Monday from Fish and Game environmental officer John Hollows, and Dr Simon McMillan, who raised concerns about possible contamination of the waterway.
The meeting, some of which was held with the public excluded, also heard more about why the landowner wanted to buy the land.
The committee would reconvene in the next two weeks to make a decision.
