Only four of the 12 submitters listed arrived. One was pro-stadium, two were anti-stadium and one was concerned the arterial route would make it more, rather than less, difficult to access the harbourside from the city.
Frankie Wells turned up with her Otago scarf and wholehearted stadium support, while Bob Cunninghame objected to, among other things, the loss of industrial land.
Electrician Lindsay Moir said he was passionate about rugby, but he did not want to see a new stadium, and "to even think about changing the designation to build something new and flash with glass and plastic just does not seem right".
Geoffrey Brown said he was a low wage earner with two sons, and he could not afford the additional rates the big projects would bring.
"The people with vision and grand ideas have not asked me where I am to find all this extra money."
The New Zealand Institute of Architects' southern branch opposed the new arterial route, its chairman, Nick Baker, said.
It had been claimed the route would add to the "permeability" between the city and the harbourside, but "we don't see that evident in what we've seen so far," Mr Baker said.
Mr Baker said he did not want Thomas Burns St to become a cul-de-sac.
He was also concerned about the design of the gyratory, which would be built on a mound rather than concrete piles, with a 15m to 20m tunnel for cyclists to allow access across Anzac Ave.
Building tunnels for cyclists "just doesn't work", he said.
Stadium hearing
What: Hearing into district plan change to create zone for stadium and extend campus zone, and notice of requirement for harbour arterial route.
Who: Before commissioners Roger Tasker (chairman), John Lumsden and John Matthews.
Where: Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum.
Yesterday: Frankie Wells, Bob Cunninghame, Geoffrey Brown, New Zealand Institute of Architects southern branch chairman Nick Baker.
Monday: Public submissions, including Stop the Stadium, Tim Calder, and the New Zealand Academy of Sport.
