Councils may not be able to take into account the distribution of retail activity under the proposed Planning Bill and Cr Andrew Simms said this would almost inevitably lead to retail drifting away from George St.
"I’m very fearful for the future of the centre of Dunedin," he said.
Cr Simms said disestablishment of retail zones was probably a bigger issue for Dunedin than for other centres, because the city did not yet have a mall outside the central business district.
George St was effectively the city’s mall, he said at a Dunedin City Council meeting this week, during which a comprehensive submission to the government about the proposed Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill was approved.
He asked council staff: "Would you agree that this is actually an existential threat for George St if this goes through as drafted?".
City development manager Anna Johnson said lack of an out-of-town shopping mall was one thing that made Dunedin special.
"Our main street is our mall and that’s incredibly special internationally and something we should be really proud of ... and I do think this would be a threat to that."
Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker said other concerns about the proposed legislation included loss of local voice, taking decision-making power away from communities and the pace of reform.
Change was needed, but she did not want significant natural landscapes and built heritage to be compromised, as they were treasured.
"We take for granted our beautiful city, but we need to fight to protect the things we love.
"We may end up in a special kind of hell if this goes through as it is."
Cr Mandy Mayhem said the Bill prioritised development and restricted public input.
The council’s submission said the possibility of having to compensate property owners for the impact of regulations would impose "significant, uncertain and potentially unquantifiable financial liabilities and resourcing demands on councils, which conflicts with the government’s stated intention to reduce rates and the proposed rates-capping policy".
Cr Mickey Treadwell said a requirement to assess areas of environmental or heritage protection for potential lost profit and then provide compensation presented "a potentially monumental change to the country".
"As we are led head first into the guillotine of rates caps, this raises a real possibility that we are fundamentally unable to provide environmental or heritage protections going forward."
The council was also worried about having to provide infrastructure to meet growth when this was unrealistic, inefficient or inequitable.
"The new system must explicitly enable growth to be sequenced and directed in a way that is infrastructure-efficient and financially sustainable for communities," the council said.
Cr Lee Vandervis was a dissenting voice, saying the aim of the legislation was to streamline development.
"The bureaucratic power of ‘no’ has been wielded too often," he said.
"In Dunedin, in particular, development has often been just too hard."
Cr Benedict Ong said the Planning Bill had been drafted from a countrywide perspective, but it allowed enough scope for councils to maintain their chosen direction.
