The future of the decaying former Tomahawk School may finally be decided more than four years after the Dunedin City Council bought it for $300,000.
The council's community and environment committee approved an expression of interest on the site to assess community and private interest in the future of the former school.
The school closed in 2010 and the site was bought by Ngai Tahu in January 2012.
The following month, the council bought the site - which includes school buildings, a pool and playgrounds - for coastal protection including the sand dunes which comprise about half the area.
It has been used as a community hub since, but the only permanent decision to be made about the site is the conversion of 300sq m into a capped landfill.
Yesterday, at the committee's meeting, several Tomahawk residents argued their cases for the maintenance of the site's buildings and a potential future use as a community.
"We are a diverse community,'' Tomahawk resident Lloyd McGinty said.
"It could be used as a soccer club. It could be used for yoga. It could be used as a surf club... There's so many options for it.''
A report to the committee showed the cost to improve it to "community use standards'' would be between $680,000 and $750,000, although $530,000-$600,000 would be the restoration of the pool.
Raising the site to industrial standards would cost $115,000, while demolishing it would cost $58,700.
Tomahawk resident Phil Kebble said the committee in charge of the pool accepted "the pool is beyond redemption''.
The committee was interested in hearing the community's proposals on the future of the site and assessing any private interest in developing the area.
Council recreation planning and facilities manager Jendi Paterson, in her report to the committee, outlined four options available for the site.
She recommended completing the expression of interest "This will support the community's desire to assess the future use of the school buildings,'' she said.
"A successful EOI process may result in third party investment in the site and buildings, preventing further deterioration.''
Maintenance of the school site was costing the council about $2000 annually, but that was projected to increase as the buildings continued to deteriorate.
The council originally bought the land with thoughts of subdividing it into residential lots to recover some of its costs.
However, a report by Ahika Consulting Ltd - commissioned by the council - recommended reclassifying the land and protecting the dunes and showed there would be little financial benefit to subdivision.
The other options available to the committee are to maintain the status quo, demolish the site's buildings or to attempt to sell the site.
Those options were all undesirable, Ms Paterson said.
The committee recommended unanimously an expression of interest be completed.
