Mr Reece said consultation was expected to be completed by Christmas, with the council anticipating it would receive the first submissions on the document within a month, once all the information was made available to the public.
Earlier this month councillors agreed to consult the public on the draft plan, prepared by consultants Tonkin and Taylor, which was delivered to the DCC in July.
The draft plan covers a 4km area stretching from St Clair to Lawyers Head, including Middle Beach, where major erosion occurred as a result of severe storms in 2007.
Recent heavy swells have caused further erosion to the dune face at various points along the beach (mostly between the St Clair Esplanade and Moana Rua Rd in St Kilda), exposed a large number of rocks along the beach, and forced the closure of an access staircase leading from the gravel track between the seawall and the tennis courts to the beach.
However the level of erosion was not considered severe, Mr Reece said.
It would be "impossible" to guess what measures would need to be taken until the present cycle of heavy swells had abated, but the council was not likely to engage in "band-aid" measures such as replenishing sand from other areas, he said.
"We will wait until the end of the week to see if we need to spend any money in that area.
"We've learnt a lot in the last four years and what we're seeing at the moment is the type of erosion we would expect to see at least once a year where there is sand going missing, but we fully expect for it to come back."
Mr Reece said indications were that a storm-event sequence was occurring where sand would be taken away, and there would be some movement of the dunes, but once the situation returned to a more benevolent wave cycle the sand would come back.
As far as the beach access staircase was concerned, re-opening it was not a priority, he said.
"The staircase is a hassle, but our priority is that no-one tries to use it and gets injured in the process.
"Health and safety is more important than access to the beach, and there are other access points available," Mr Reece said.
