Of 7000 surveys sent out by Waitaki's economic development group, Venture Waitaki, in March, about 400 were returned.
Preliminary results show most respondents (54%) are in favour of the subdivision, which was effectively shelved in 2013 following community disquiet.
Venture Waitaki chairman Simon Berry said he had hoped for a better return but he was pleased to see more in favour of the project than against it.
Just over a third of respondents (34%) indicated they did not support the development of Forrester Heights and 12% had asked for more information.
Venture Waitaki would continue to solicit input on its website, venturewaitaki.co.nz, Mr Berry said, as 269 paper surveys were returned and about 150 were completed online.
"We've still got a result and we've still got a lot of support for it; that's the key message we should take away.
"And we encourage more people to get their voice out there.''
The 22-section subdivision east of Lane St was first suggested by the Waitaki District Council in 2006 but it languished when the block of land was mistakenly classified as reserve land.
In 2013, a petition containing more than 700 signatures calling for Forrester Heights to be made a reserve "never [to] be built on'' effectively shelved the proposal before the recently formed Venture Waitaki revived the proposal as its first major project this year.
Where land stability was once raised as a road block to the proposal, this time Waitaki deputy mayor Hugh Perkins called on Oamaru residents to reject the proposal due to the risk the council would be asked to take on as a developer of a high-end residential subdivision.
This week, Mr Berry said Venture Waitaki was not necessarily pushing for the council to take on the role as developer, but rather to see the land developed.
"If they [the council] want to ‘de-risk it' and give that risk and return to a developer, then that's their call. In reality, that could appease a lot of people.
"We don't take the big return; it goes to some developer, but it gets the job done; we get greater rates intake and all the rest.
"We [Venture Waitaki] see it as an economic development venture, which way the council goes about it is up to them. If they see it as too risky to do it themselves, then sell it to someone to take on the risk, who's prepared to take on that risk. It's all about risk and return.''
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said the preliminary results from the survey were "a wee bit too basic'' at present.
"It's really the qualitative information that they have, what are the reasons why [respondents] want more information, or why are they for or against it?'' he said.
The council had not formally discussed the subdivision.
"We need to decide what's the overall appetite; there's a range of views at the moment.
"My position has been and remains that we've got to do more work. If the council as a whole decides it wants to go ahead with this, the next step is doing quite a bit of work on what is the market like at the moment, what are the development costs involved in setting it all up and how do we do it in a way we don't spend money until we know we've got enough sales.''
However, he said the controversy surrounding the subdivision appeared to have died.
"I believe the survey got reasonable publicity.
"It certainly got out and about. I think if it was truly controversial people would have taken the opportunity to respond,'' Mr Kircher said.
