Councillors agreed at a meeting on Wednesday the project had potential merit and believed further investigation was needed.
Chief executive Steve Ruru was asked to liaise with Mr Havill's company, Haast Hollyford Highway Ltd, to get the information needed to complete an initial evaluation of the proposal and prepare a community consultation document.
The highway would connect to the Milford road via the Hollyford Valley.
It would be about 135km long - including about 98km of new road - with more than half its length within the Southland district.
Mr Havill believes it will be a major tourist route, cutting 335km from the present journey between Haast and Milford Sound.
He and his company's Chinese investors estimate construction costs at $250 million, to be funded by a toll proposed at $35 per person, including GST.
Mr Havill said yesterday the project already had backing in principle from four West Coast councils but Southland District Council support was the most important.
''It's absolutely great. My feet had been dragging, but they got a bit lighter after I heard the news ... This starts to get us moving again.''
Mr Ruru said he had been asked to find out more details about the project, including operational and capital costs, revenue projections and risks associated with those projections, and environmental and landscape impacts.
The council believed the Land Transport Management Act required the highway to be owned by the council and leased to the Haast Hollyford Highway Ltd, he said, but that was something he would discuss with the highway company.
Once Mr Ruru had more information, he would write a report for a consultation document to go out to ratepayers and residents in ''a couple of months''.
''While being supportive of the concept behind the road, councillors saw any decision on the highway as significant and as such believe that it is important that we ask ratepayers and residents what they think.''
Mr Havill said he was not sure how much more information he could give Mr Ruru at this stage but was happy to work with him.
More information would be available in the resource consent applications for the road, he said.
In January, Mr Havill said he hoped to lodge resource consent applications in April.
He said yesterday he was disappointed he had not been able to meet that deadline but was hopeful the consents would be lodged by the end of June or early July.
