An engineering report will determine the next step in the development of the Montgomery Rd reserve on St John's Hill.
The reserve, on the corner of Great North Rd and Montgomery Rd, is earmarked for change with a major portion of it retained as passive reserve and the remainder broken up into residential sections.
Wanganui District Council tagged the reserve property for sale but met stern resistance from locals. A petition eventually forced the council to back down on its original plan and settle for a compromise to retain the views across the city and Tasman Sea.
Leighton Toy, council's deputy property manager, said a report was being prepared by an independent traffic consultant.
"It will review access to the reserve from Great North Rd and Montgomery Rd as well as the number of sections that they would deem acceptable."
He said the report would also determine where access to the residential subdivision would come from.
Mr Toy said the original concept proposed creating six sections on the city side of the reserve but he said there was potential for that number to change. He said the size of the sections would be confirmed at a later date.
The council had started actively marketing the sub-division in March but a public campaign and petition, which generated several thousand signatures, convinced the council to almost halve the amount of land it had earmarked for housing.
The original plan was to hive off about 15,000sq m of the reserve and council officers were estimating that area could have realised up to $500,000. The about-face means there will only be 9500sq m available for housing development while the reserve space will more than double from 5400sq m to 10,940sq m.
The reserve was among a number council had earmarked for sale, using the income to help lower its debt levels.