One suggested at the annual plan hearings in Dunedin yesterday was for the council to set up a $100,000 maintenance and enhancement budget to fund dredging around the wharves and pontoons to create access during any tides.
Monarch Wildlife Cruises and Vision Port Chalmers expressed concern about the lack of access at Carey's Bay, Back Beach, Weller's Rock and Aramoana during low tides, while Macandrew Bay Boating Club was concerned about shallowness at Macandrew Bay and the harbour's eastern channel.
Vision Port Chalmers chairman Bill Brown said it was difficult for passengers to disembark from small vessels because of the silt around pontoons and wharves, unless it was high tide.
The harbour was a great asset to Dunedin and those wharves were popular with small commercial users such as the new water taxi service, fishing charters and private users, he said.
Dredging the areas would provide an opportunity for commercial services in the harbour to grow and provide economic value.
''If it's left and ignored then it won't happen.''
The council should set up the maintenance and enhancement budget to be used to ensure access to those facilities was maintained, he said.
Monarch's Neil Harraway said the regional council should co-ordinate Port Otago, the Dunedin City Council and users to look at what needed to be done to maintain access to harbour wharves and the eastern channel.
''I suggest a small investment by all parties and community organisations will yield greater return than you might get with the stadium.''
The situation was hampering business and recreation, he said.
''You can't run a business on changing tides.''
Macandrew Bay Boating Club commodore Tony Marcinowski said Macandrew Bay had silted up so much the swimming pontoon in the bay had to be moved 9m further out in 2010 because there was not enough water under it.
The water level had dropped again and the pontoon would need to be moved again this summer.
''In the space of six years we have lost 18m in horizontal distance.''
It was possible the replenishment of sand on the beach, which the city council had consent for, was one of the ''triggers''.
''Why don't you bring a dredge over to give us the water depth back and while you are at it why not dredge the entire eastern channel?'' Having an accessible channel could be important for safety and
to provide a link if the coast road was inaccessible because of slips.
ORC annual plan hearings
Where: Dunedin.
Day: 2.
Panel: Crs David Shepherd (chairman), Stephen Woodhead, Gretchen Robertson, Gary Kelliher, and Gerry Eckhoff.
Submitters: TbFree and OSPRI, Jenny Olsen, Pathway for the Pomahaka Group, Federated Farmers, Bus Go Dunedin, Chalmers Community Board, Vision Port Chalmers, Heritage NZ, Clutha Development Trust, Cargill's Castle Trust, Macandrew Bay Boating Club, Monarch Wildlife Cruises and Tours, Fonterra, Ross McLeary, Brockville Community Development Project, Enviroschools, Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group, Otago Polytechnic Students Association.
What next: Panel adjourned to consider submissions.
