The Forrester Heights subdivision on Cape Wanbrow may struggle to get clearance from Parliament this year so work can start on the 27-section residential development.
Before the Waitaki District Council can start physical work and issue titles for sections it has already sold, it needs Parliament to change the reserve status on the land by passing the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill.
The Bill has been reported back from a select committee with the Forrester Heights land included in its clauses, listed as "Lookout Point land".
It will have to go through a second and third reading before being passed.
The Bill comes under Minister for Land Information Maurice Williamson.
His office said on Friday the Bill was 28 out of 47 on the legislation list and no date had been set for it to go back to Parliament.
When it would go back to Parliament would depend on the order of business in the House.
The council first proposed the subdivision in 2006 on 5.842ha of Cape Wanbrow facing north over the Oamaru harbour and coast.
It set aside $3 million from the eventual profit for the $10.3 million Opera House redevelopment, officially completed earlier this year.
That $3 million is now a loan resting with the council's property division and accruing interest.
The plan was for 27 sections ranging in size from 610sq m to 1540sq m with prices starting at $300,000 - at the time, the most expensive residential sections of their size in Oamaru.
In December 2006, it put sections on the market.
It eventually sold 14, then worth about $7 million in total.
However, the council hit a snag when it discovered the status of the land had been changed in 1937 from endowment for the benefit of the Oamaru borough, to reserve.
It asked Parliament to lift the reserve status, and had expected the Bill to be completed in April 2006.
It is still waiting.
