Council property manager Renee Julius said this week she would not comment on council plans for the 1951 Itchen St building until the Act was repealed.
The council took ownership of the RSA building in late 2015, after the dissolution of the North Otago RSA, and earlier this year the ``Oamaru Town Hall and Gas Works Sites and Recreation Reserves Vesting Act 1875'' was found to possibly prohibit the building from having a future use.
The Act was the basis of a potential legal fight that ended a contentious, planned $4million redevelopment of the RSA in preparation for a 10-year lease as a 24-hour call centre.
A site affected by the historic Act ``cannot be leased to anyone for any purpose'', the council said at the time it ended negotiations with Trustpower, which employs about 100 people - predominantly call centre staff - at its Thames St location.
Until the legal challenge to the lease was raised, the council considered the Reserves Act 1977 to be the relevant legislation.
Mrs Julius said this week there remained ``a considerable amount of work to repeal this Act and we are currently scoping how much and what type of work is required''.
``As the Act is very old, the meaning of some of the language requires translation,'' she said. ``This will be part of the initial scoping of the project.''
The 1875 Act includes measurements in ``roods'', ``poles'' and ``links''.
In the council's annual report, tabled at last month's council meeting, it states the Act ``exercises powers and fulfills responsibilities conferred on it by numerous public Acts of Parliament'' and two local statutes: The Oamaru Town Hall and Gas Works Sites and Recreation Reserves Vesting Act 1875, and the Oamaru Town Management Ordinance 1872.
Mrs Julius, in an emailed response, did not reply to a question asking whether the 1872 Act would also be repealed directly, saying instead: ``We are also taking the opportunity to investigate whether any other Acts, historical or otherwise, need to be considered in light of the overall project.
``Until this work has been done, we do not wish to speculate on how this will affect the former RSA building.''
