Cr Lee Vandervis asked at a meeting last week about advocacy for that position by both the Dunedin City Council and Mayor Sophie Barker.
"Is it possible for you to make clear that we expect those major assets to be returned to us?"
His question came after the government announced a plan to abolish regional councillors and have boards take over regional council activities.
Cr Vandervis said a unitary authority in Dunedin appeared probable, assuming re-election of the government next year.
Port Otago and harbourside land was given to the ORC in 1989 during local government reform "after we had developed them as a city for over a century", Cr Vandervis said.
Council chief executive Sandy Graham said the council would draft a submission to the government about its proposed regional government reforms.
"It may be that council at that point wishes to consider how some of those things might be distributed, although it’s probably far too early in the process to be having a land grab about the ORC assets.
"I would suggest that submission would be the place where you raise that matter."
Ms Barker acknowledged Cr Vandervis’ point.
"I won’t make a land grab at the next [Otago] mayoral forum, but noted, thank you."
Cr Vandervis’ view about the port differed from that of regional councillor Michael Laws.
"I will put this stake in the ground - it’s a regional asset, it’s not a Dunedin asset," Cr Laws said last week.
"It belongs to all of the region and to the region’s ratepayers."
He supported reform and said the regional council was a "bloated and ineffectual beast".
