At Campbells Bay, in Kakanui, growing crowds of freedom campers have swelled so dramatically in the past few years the facilities can no longer keep up with demand.
Locals estimate up to 200 people have stayed at the beach site on busy nights, and some in the community are calling for a ban on camping and some are trying to retain it.
People have camped at the seaside spot for many years.
Due to overuse, the toilet block at Campbells Bay had four maintenance callouts in January.
At the end of the month, the Waitaki District Council spent $5000 installing a new holding tank to ease the pressure on the water supply of the failing infrastructure.
At the council's extraordinary council meeting in Oamaru on Wednesday, Cr Melanie Tavendale, of Kakanui, argued successfully for keeping $60,000 in the budget for an additional toilet block at the site, but not to proceed with additional amenities there before hearing what the community wanted.
The money could be used as seed funding if the council was to spend up to $200,000 for what was described in a council report as a "total integrated replacement'' for the toilet block, but Cr Tavendale said the community and the council needed to put a "big picture'' plan in place for Kakanui, before the camping season begins again next year.
"Kakanui is a wee gem,'' she said.
"It was off the map in a lot of ways ... but the game has changed. And we need to try to deal with it.
"There are so many arguments out there for and against [freedom camping], and I get them.''
The freedom campers are currently using land owned by both the council and the Kakanui Ratepayers and Improvement Society.
The society's secretary, Lucianne White, said the community placed a high importance on the "wilderness aspect'' of the area and the community's values should be a part of finding a solution for the area.
Peter Cleverley lives opposite the Campbells Bay camping ground.
In the mid-1990s the camping ground began to change from what was once a place used by a few families from the region, he said.
"In about 2005 that's when it started to get, ‘Woah, there are a lot of people here','' Mr Cleverley said.
"And in the last three years, it's just been a monster.''
The Queenstown Lakes District Council introduced tough penalties for freedom campers who break the rules, but the Waitaki District Council does not have a freedom camping bylaw.
Council customer services group manager Richard Mabon said that in 2011 a freedom camping bylaw was mooted for the district, but at the time the council decided to "monitor the situation''.
"Five years on we are aware that this situation may have changed.''
He said the council would review the general bylaw this year which "may result in freedom camping being included ... in the bylaw''.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher favoured a bylaw soon.
Hannes Ruediger (25) and Luisa Majonek (24), both from Germany, stayed at Campbells Bay on Thursday night.
The camping app they used, from rankers.co.nz, pointed them to the spot on their tour of the South Island and they had enjoyed it, spending two nights there in January, so had returned north through Kakanui.
Mr Ruediger said he sympathised with locals who did not want their backyard filled with campers.
Often, camping sites were overcrowded, he said.
