Port Otago yesterday continued its fight for rules that would allow development on Dunedin’s harbourside.
The organisation argued its case at the Dunedin City Council’s second generation district plan (2GP) hearings, telling the hearings committee a lack of land for development was one reason none had occurred so far.
The committee also heard Port Otago was thinking hard about where it might shift the slipway at the upper harbour, and that it was happy to make more of its land in the area freehold.
Port Otago has called for the harbourside edge zone to be extended to cover part of Fryatt St, on the north side of Steamer Basin.
That would pave the way for the redevelopment of its Fryatt St sheds, which are becoming derelict.
Counsel Len Andersen said opposition from industry in the area to plans to develop the harbourside in the past came from a a failure to understand they could keep operating in the area as long as they liked.
When in 2009 sites on the south side of Steamer Basin were made harbourside zones that could be developed with the likes of apartments, bars and cafes, there was not enough land in the zone to get momentum for development.
"So nothing has happened since then,’’ Mr Andersen said.
Asked by commissioner David Collins what was holding up development, Mr Andersen said it needed someone enthusiastic, but the lack of land limited choice of sites.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunkett said a development like the Otago Regional Council offices that had been suggested, or the University of Otago aquarium, could get things going.
Cr David Benson-Pope asked about Port Otago’s policy regarding freeholding land.
The organisation has been criticised for not selling land it owns and leases, which some have said restricts development.
Mr Plunkett said it was happy to sell its land to allow freeholding.
Since 1998, it had sold about 50% of the land it owned.
Asked by Cr Kate Wilson why Port Otago did not develop land itself, Mr Plunkett said: "We’re not a true developer in a developer’s sense".
"We wouldn’t want to end up the owner of everything in the harbour basin."
Responding to a question about Port Otago’s slipway in the upper harbour, Mr Plunkett said in the long term the facility was "in the wrong place".
Once development occurred in the area it would not be appreciated by its new neighbours.
The city needed a slipway, however, and Port Otago was looking for a new site.
"To be honest, I’m not sure what a good location is, but we need to be thinking about that.
"We’ve definitely got some thinking to do on that subject."
Regarding the Fryatt St sheds, Mr Plunkett said they were good only for "low-value storage".
It was not economic to improve them, and decisions on their future were difficult, he said.
The sheds had asbestos roofs which were "fine as long as we don’t touch them", and while demolition was an option, the sheds had historic aspects that should be kept.
Mr Plunkett said whatever Port Otago did with the sheds would end up on the front page of the Otago Daily Times.
The hearings continue today.
