The Waitaki District Council will, however, push on with plans to build the trail from Oamaru to Palmerston.
The Dunedin City Council’s decision follows questions this week about the accuracy of a feasibility study on the plan.
Councillors and staff at an economic development committee meeting on Monday expressed low confidence in the study’s findings, especially the estimated economic benefits and cost of building the 195km trail.
The $14million cost was questioned, and it was suggested the plan could cost double that.
The feasibility study said the trail would be an extension of the Alps 2 Ocean trail and could generate $100million within the first 20 years, but council staff said they lacked confidence in the study’s numbers.
Infrastructure services general manager Simon Drew said staff did not find the cost of the build as cited to be believable.
"Those costs are only likely to go up. They would be unlikely to go down."
The council was not being asked to commit money at this stage. That would come in the 2021-22 year as part of its long-term planning.
He had discussed the issue with Waitaki District Council assets group manager Neil Jorgensen, who said that council was committed to progressing a detailed study on the Oamaru to Palmerston leg.
Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie also questioned the figures, and said he did not agree the trail would generate the $100million.
Councillors, too, roundly drubbed the report and its findings.
Cr Doug Hall said he believed the budget figures
"would have to double if not more than that to even come close".
Mayor Aaron Hawkins said if council staff were not confident with the numbers, there was no point in taking it any further.
"While it does pain me at some level to effectively stop us doing any further work on it, we have heard there’s currently no resourcing in the team to do any more work to put the decision off to the long-term plan, where the same work will come back to us with the same low confidence."
It did not mean the council could not revisit the idea with more of a commuter focus, but rigorous work would be needed to convince him it was something worth investing resources in.
Cr Lee Vandervis said the report, particularly a plan to put the trail along the winding, narrow Leith Valley, was "one of the more absurd that I’ve seen put in front of us".
"I am amazed that it appears in a MartinJenkins final report, and I am not wanting to give this report any credence at all ... not only the costings but because they do not appear to have the first idea of what a credible route might be."
Other councillors noted a coastal cycle route was the missing link in the Otago cycle trail network and the success of the Alps 2 Ocean trail, but said it was not the right time; Dunedin needed to focus on completing cycle trails in the city first.
Crs Christine Garey, Jules Radich and Jim O’Malley said the idea should not be forgotten altogether.
The council voted to note it had received the feasibility study, but did not agree staff should report back on including the project in any long-term planning.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said he respected the Dunedin council’s decision, and that the Waitaki District Council was determined to build its part of the track up to the district’s border.
It had committed $150,000 to the next stage of the trail’s study.
"It is still going to be a fantastic ride connecting our coastal communities. It does not need to connect to Dunedin to have [many] cyclists using it."
It had made sense to extend it to Dunedin and the opportunity for the city council to change its mind "when the time was right" would still be there.
