The shabby North Otago Returned and Services Association (RSA) building in Itchen St faces a tough road ahead.
The now gutted building has been owned by the Waitaki District Council since 2015, when the RSA went into liquidation and vested it to the council.
The space was going to be used for the North Otago Toy Library before asbestos was discovered.
Work began to remove the asbestos and prepare the building for an extensive renovation.
Nearly a decade has passed and the former RSA sits with an air of neglect.
At the time council started the redevelopment it found the Oamaru Town Hall and Gasworks Sites and Recreation Reserves Act 1875 prohibited it from leasing the land the building sits on.
Waitaki District Council infrastructure manager Joshua Rendell said the process of raising a local Bill to repeal the legislation was expected to add further costs before anything further could be done.
"Any future use will involve a financial investment to renovate the building to a usable standard.
"The founders of Oamaru had the best intentions when the Oamaru Town Hall and Gasworks Sites and Recreation Reserves Act 1875 was passed, but 149 years later, it’s something of a problem that will require time and funding to solve," Mr Rendell said.
Waitaki MP Miles Anderson said there had been no dialogue with him yet about council wanting to resolve its legal status via a law change.
Mr Anderson said he would be "more than happy to help" if the council wanted the Act changed.
"I would have to rely on the local community for direction on that and, more importantly, the council’s direction.
"I wouldn’t want to go off and do that unilaterally without having them come to me," he said.
Mayor Gary Kircher said at this point council had not allocated the staff resources to rectify the situation.
"Basically there is a project in the [next] long-term plan we’re developing."
This would include getting the law change through Parliament to allow council to use the site, "for whatever we decide with the community is the best use".
He understood the law in question should have been rescinded when the current Reserves Act was brought in.
Mr Anderson suggested the district council might consider moving the Forrester Gallery into the building as a way to free up space.
"The bowling green would be the perfect setting for exhibitions or garden parties or whatever," he said.
"The building is obviously a substantial building and the sooner the issue is dealt with, the better.
"If it’s left unoccupied, it’s going to get a bit dilapidated."
