Submissions on the Dunedin City Council's proposed representation review closed on Monday, after the council earlier endorsed the recommendations of an independent panel for public consultation.
The panel had suggested reducing the number of community boards in the city from six to five, and adjusting their boundaries so urban areas were not covered.
The number of elected members on each board would also drop from six to four, while the number of city councillors remained the same, at 14.
All councillors would in future be elected at large, meaning there would no longer be wards, and councillors would be voted for by all residents.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said yesterday he was pleased with the ''fairly substantial'' public interest in the proposed changes.
''I think that's pretty healthy, actually.''
The biggest issues in the public's mind appeared to be the change to an at-large election, and cuts to community boards, he said.
An initial analysis had found most submitters were not in favour of proposed changes to community board boundaries, or reducing the number of community board members.
There also appeared to be little appetite for reducing the number of councillors, Mr Cull said.
Under existing arrangements, the council was made up of 14 councillors and one mayor, but voting was divided.
All residents could have their say on who became mayor, but councillors were elected by individual wards.
That meant 11 councillors were elected by the city's large central ward, two in the Mosgiel-Taieri ward, but just one for the Waikouaiti Coast-Chalmers ward.
The system prompted complaints from some voters left unable to vote for a councillor at all in 2013, after Cr Andrew Noone was elected unopposed in the Waikouaiti Coast-Chalmers ward.
Mr Cull said yesterday that lack of input was one of the most common complaints to emerge from the Mosgiel-Taieri ward as well, but changing the system created its own issues, he said.
Some councillors have expressed concern an at-large election could make it more difficult for a rural voice to find its way on to council, although Mr Cull was reluctant to agree yesterday.
''There's arguments on both sides, really,'' he said.
The number of councillors representing the city appeared to be ''about right'' to ensure broad representation, he said.
''The more you chop it back, you might say it becomes more efficient, but you also lose representation.
''If you've got a reasonable number of councillors, you've got a better chance of successful candidates who represent a range of community interests.''
About 50 of the 170 submitters had indicated a desire to speak when hearings were held on August 11-12 before a panel of available councillors.
The panel would then report back to the full council by September 7, which would pass a final resolution.
However, any appeals or objections would then have to be heard by the Local Government Commission, council corporate services group manager Sandy Graham confirmed.
The commission would make a final determination by April 10 next year, and Mr Cull said there was ''every chance'' it could impose something different.
That had happened the last time Dunedin's system was reviewed, in 2010, when the commission ignored the council's wishes by deciding to implement one large urban ward and two rural wards.
''That's one of the oddities of this system. We can do a lot of consultation; we have two highly skilled people on the panel as well, a huge amount of thinking goes into it, and the Local Government Commission can just do something else entirely,'' Mr Cull said.
