Instead, the report by council staff recommends councillors choose between two possible options - either continuing to block vehicles from using the road, or reverting to open access.
If councillors chose to maintain restricted access, a decision would then be needed about how best to restrict access, the report said.
Measures to be considered included the location of the gate - at present situated about halfway along John Wilson Ocean Dr - and whether the road could be opened at certain times of the day, the report said.
The report's recommendations would be considered at a meeting of the council's community development committee on June 9.
It followed calls by some councillors for the road to be reopened to vehicles, led by Cr John Bezett, who has said the road's prolonged closure "wasn't council's intention".
The road, developed in the 1970s, was closed in late 2006 to allow construction of Dunedin's $37 million sewage outfall pipe.
It has not reopened since the pipe's commissioning in January.
In March, council parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson confirmed the gate blocking vehicle access would be retained until a long-term Ocean Beach management plan was completed in "several years".
Cr Bezett argued councillors who approved the continued closure had not intended to do so for years, and called for "redress".
He believed the majority of councillors supported reopening the road, but Cr Paul Hudson said he and "one or two others" around the council table did not.
The council report noted wildlife activity in the area had increased as disturbance from vehicles had reduced.
The number of suicides in the area had also drastically reduced since the road's closure.
The recent appearance of fresh white road markings on the closed section of John Wilson Ocean Dr was part of routine maintenance and "absolutely nothing at all" to do with plans to reopen the road, council parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson said.
