Councillors will tomorrow consider a staff report recommending the rocks - which have been blocking vehicles from using an unformed legal road to Blueskin Bay - be removed by May 1.
The report was based in part on the findings of an independent traffic safety assessment, which concluded reopening the track to vehicles would pose only ''minor'' safety concerns which could be addressed.
A separate ecological study concluded Blueskin Bay was ''not of high or outstanding natural character'' despite habitat and wildlife values, a report by council transportation group manager Gene Ollerenshaw said.
Together, the findings meant the continued closure of the track to vehicles ''may not be justified'', and could even leave the council exposed to expensive court action, he said.
''Legal advice is that a bylaw justified on traffic safety alone stands a reasonable prospect of being successfully challenged in court. In the event of an appeal, the time and cost would be significant.''
Instead, the council would consider three options, including whether or not to ignore the report and make vehicle restrictions permanent. That would require only $2000 to be spent improving pedestrian safety along Bank and Bay Rds, leading to the tracks.
Council staff did not support the option, citing the legal risks, and instead recommended vehicle access be reinstated, he said. That would require between $10,000 and $20,000 from existing budgets to be spent adding footpaths, signs and barriers to restrict parking, and potentially also widening and improving the vehicle track itself, he said.
Some of the work was needed ''irrespective of whether access is reinstated'', but not all would be required initially, he said.
The move was considered safe, even though it would come with a ''higher residual risk'' than continuing to block vehicles from using the track, he said.
Alternatively, the council could consider a third option - creating a second, new, track for pedestrians, while opening up the existing track for vehicles only.
Staff did not recommend it, as it would be ''the most expensive option'' at between $60,000 and $80,000, he said.
It was the latest twist in the long-running debate over the rocks, which have drawn the ire of some community figures - and support from others - since being installed in 2008 to prevent vehicles using the track.
They were the subject of a nearly four-hour debate when councillors last considered their future at a meeting of the council's infrastructure services committee last October.
The use of the rocks to address a perceived safety concern was found to be illegal, as no formal road closure process was completed.
A recommendation to remove them was defeated at the October meeting only after chairwoman Cr Kate Wilson used her casting vote to end a deadlock. Instead, councillors decided to continue to ''temporarily divert'' traffic from the track while staff investigated whether a permanent closure, using a new bylaw, was justified.
Mr Ollerenshaw's latest report will be considered at tomorrow's meeting of the Dunedin City Council. If councillors backed its recommendation to reinstate vehicle access, the rocks would be removed by May 1.
