The council has applied to Lakes Environmental for up to 10,950 landings a year on the helipad at the Skyline and gondola on Bobs Peak.
It has given permission for commercial helicopters to land on the site since 1986 but never had the resource consent to do so.
Following a hearing, independent commissioners decided to publicly notify the application, giving the public a chance to have its say.
The council did not want to have the application publicly notified because it had received no complaints in the 22 years the helipad has been used by commercial operators.
It had also consulted the public about the helipad when it wrote its reserve management plan.
Mr Geddes said he was "very comfortable" with the decision to publicly notify the application.
He said the commissioners had decided the number of landings required public input.
The council now had two options: to proceed with a hearing on public submissions or to withdraw and lodge a new, amended application, he said.
If the council decided to lower the number of landings, it would need to lodge a new application, which might not require public notification.
The council would discuss its options and make a decision in the next week or so, he said.
He respected the independent commissioners' decision to call for public submissions.
"The whole principle of having independent commissioners is that each application should be determined on its merits regardless of who the applicant is . . . [and] there is absolute transparency with how applications are managed," he said.
A time-frame for public submissions and a hearing had yet to be determined by Lakes Environmental.
