The 22-section, 5.8ha subdivision on Cape Wanbrow overlooking Oamaru Harbour, town and the coast was first proposed by the council in 2006, with $3 million in profits earmarked to help pay for the $10.2 million refurbishment of the Opera House in Oamaru.
But since its inception it has been dogged by disputes, including over the status of the land, which is designated reserve land under the Reserves Act.
The council believed that was a mistake made in 1937 after the land was originally set aside in 1885 by the government as endowment land for the Oamaru borough.
That contention has been contested by individuals and groups, including the Waitaki Ratepayers and Concerned Citizens and the Friendly Bay Society, which opposed changing the designation and maintained it was intended to be a reserve and could not be subdivided.
Ratepayers and Concerned Citizens chairman Warren Crawford yesterday confirmed the group continued to oppose the subdivision. It believed the land should be retained as reserve and planted in native trees, and suggested children be involved on Arbor Days.
The group's biggest criticism was lack of consultation, particularly with a local member's Bill which did not go to a select committee with the opportunity for public submissions.
Even if that was the case, Mr Crawford believed the council should consult at a local level, advertising the proposal and calling for public submissions.
In July last year, the council put a halt to spending any more money on the subdivision project, but allowed expenditure on the local member's Bill.
Now the council is advertising its intention to proceed with the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill, which seeks to clarify the status of the Forrester Heights land and two other parcels of land, in Palmerston and Oamaru.
Already it had tried to get Parliament to rectify the status of the land through a national Reserves and Other Lands Bill, which is held up in Parliament.
Because of the delay with that, the council withdrew the section of the Bill referring to Forrester Heights and decided to go it alone with its own local member's Bill.
The other land included in the Bill is part of the Palmerston Showgrounds, which the council wants to sell to the current lessees, and a small parcel of land in Oamaru, which it has already sold, whose reserve status it wants to revoke.
But the Forrester Heights land is the most contentious in the new Bill.
The Bill can be viewed at the council offices, Oamaru Library and on the council's website.
