The Clutha Gold Trail Charitable Trust last month applied to the Clutha District Council for a land use consent for the 20km section between Beaumont and Lawrence for which the council has jurisdiction.
Planning and environment manager Murray Brass said the council had asked Dunedin City councillor Colin Weatherall to be an independent commissioner, because the trust had asked for a non-notified consent. The council supported the proposal, so an independent commissioner was needed to decide whether to grant the consent.
However, Mr Weatherall would have to confirm a non-notified consent upon his return from the United Kingdom in a few weeks.
"It'll be nice to see everything under way, but this is only another step. There are plenty more to go," trust chairman Rod Peirce said The trust hoped to work on the trail in sections, joining them together later, he said.
The section of trail would begin at the Millenium Track, at the southern end of the Beaumont Bridge and take riders and walkers to Lawrence township.
Construction of the trail was expected to begin in the next two months, after the resolution of an appeal from the Society for the Promotion of an Alternative Route about some aspects of the trail.
In March, independent commissioner Denis Nugent, of Wanaka, granted land use consent to the trust for structures associated with the construction, operation and maintenance of a walking and cycling track.
The consent was subject to 48 conditions and applied only to the section within the Central Otago district, from the dam to Beaumont, where the trail would follow the true left bank (east) of the Clutha River.
The appeal has resulted in extra conditions being imposed about surveying in front of some properties, but the society had been unsuccessful in trying to get part of the trail realigned, the society's lawyer, Annabel Ritchie, said.
Mr Peirce said the trust was pleased by the decision because it had "only had one option - along the river", for the trail.
- Additional reporting Pam Jones
