Developers plan to push ahead with the $500 million Shelly Bay project regardless of what the Wellington City Council decides.

It comes as those behind the development strike back at claims the development would restrict public access.

For two days this week, Wellington councillors heard oral submissions on the proposal for the council selling or leasing a parcel of its land at the harbourside site to developers Shelly Bay Ltd, made up of The Wellington Company and iwi Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust (PNBST).

CAMERON BURNELL/STUFF Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust chairman Wayne Mulligan says the Shelly Bay development does not even need Wellington City Council land - though it would be good.

While developers would ideally like – and expected – the council land, trust chairman Wayne Mulligan said outside the meeting that it was not crucial, especially as the development already had resource consent.

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"If council says no, we will go forth and develop our land."

STUFF The controversial Shelly Bay development could go ahead, even if the council does not sell or lease its land, its advocates have said at city council hearings.

Most of the planned private development was on iwi-owned land, while much of the planned public space was on land currently owned by ratepayers, he said.

Wellington Company managing director Ian Cassels said: "We have legal consent and we can do it. We will do it in one form or another."

Councillor Diane Calvert said there were two parts to the process: Land consent, then public consultation on the sale or lease of the land.

STANTIALL STUDIO/SUPPLIED An artist's impression of the proposed Shelly Bay development with the view towards the proposed village green.

"A lot of what we're hearing now is what we might have heard if the resource consent had been notified," she said.

"This consultation process is more about the sale and lease of the land ... but what we're hearing now is a lot of submissions about the over-arching development.

"It could go ahead anyway, because that's their plan. They've got the resource consent."

The resource consent that was granted may not still apply without the council land, she said.

Any decision that the council made could be challenged by the court, she said.

To Morris Love and Mulligan – both officially submitting for the Wellington Tenths Trust – the deal had already been done.

The iwi got its parcel of land as part of its Treaty Settlement and in 2009 signed a memorandum of understanding with the city council and Greater Wellington Regional Council to proactively and constructively work to develop the site.

If the council did not agree to sell or lease its land parcel it would be in breach of that agreement and possibly the Treaty of Waitangi, Love said.

Asked if this meant there would be legal action, neither would rule it out, though both expected councillors to make the "right decision".

Love rejected the idea that the development was for the benefit of a single developer and that the public would lose out.

"It is not possible to access the promenade now and it was not possible when it was a military site," he said.

"This is to be applauded as a great improvement for all to enjoy."

Mulligan said all submitters could be assured that it would not be an exclusive community.

"We've called it home for over 180 years, and we would be happy to speak to all parties about that."

The development would improve public access too.

"This plan guarantees more public space to the wider area than there has been for over a century."

"We will create something great," he said.