Puketapu, the distinctive peak above Palmerston, which includes the Waihemo Recreation Reserve, has been managed by a local farming family since the 1920s.
For past 30 or so years, deer have been run on it, but the lease has expired.
An initial proposal to restore public access goes back to 2006 and the future management has been a matter of debate.
In late 2024, the Waihemo Community Board accepted a Waitaki District Council staff recommendation for a proposed three-stage retirement plan.
This would involve the reserve being progressively ceded to the community-based Puketapu Trust.
The submissions period ends on Tuesday.
Debate on the staged proposal last November reflected board concern about the trust’s capacity to manage, and fairness to the current leaseholder, the Oliver family.
Meanwhile, the trust argues the reserve status demands open public access and ecological protection.
Puketapu Trust chairman Hamish McFarlane said the best option was to cede the entire area "all at once".
"Under the proposed plan, it would be eight years before we get the last third," he said.
The trust was poised for a revegetation plan but any more delay meant they risked losing a time-bound $50,000 Otago Regional Council eco-grant.
Mr McFarlane said the trust believed it would be "more cost-effective" to cede the entire area now.
This was because the staged approach entailed a $50,000 fencing bill to divide the first section alone.
This was above $16,000 costs to temporarily reroute a stock water system, and consenting costs given the reserve’s protected landscape status.
Mr McFarlane said the trust had also repeatedly sought details from the council of the current reserve occupancy and any revenue.
The council had declined to release any details.
He said it was not clear how the proposed staged approach would be fully offset by any reserve funds.
"There’s no accounting for it."
The current three-stage proposal particularly worried the trust, as further fencing would "put another mark into a significant landscape," Mr McFarlane said.
A 2024 council report notes the reserve’s ecological and landscape significance with obligations on the council to protect it.
Waihemo Ward councillor Jim Thomson said the council and board were being cautious, given obligations to the reserve status.
But they also had to be fair to the current occupier, and consider feeling in the East Otago community.
Cr Thomson said the board did have "concern" around the trust’s capacity including possible gorse infestation.
"We’re trying to see if there is potentially a solution, in a staged retirement from the lease.
"All these things have to be negotiated."
He likened the proposal to "three bites of the cherry".
"I suppose, from our point of view, is how do you tread the politician’s path to keep all people happy?
"That doesn’t diminish the responsibilities that the councillors have.
"But at the same time, is there an acceptable solution that is amenable to all parties involved ...
"We are trying to achieve an outcome that the whole community can support," Cr Thomson said.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said he was "keeping neutral" at this point.
He agreed any argument about the trust’s capacity could be countered in the council’s current approach of continuing to enable deer grazing of the reserve when it had obligations to protect it.
Asked about an independent hearing, district council chief executive Alex Parmley said a report on the number of submissions, including those who wanted to speak at a hearing, would be presented.
"This will present the mayor and councillors with options for hearings."
