Stephen Macknight, a structural engineer and developer, was among submitters to criticise plans for a 17-storey hotel and apartment tower for a fifth day yesterday.
Mr Macknight said Dunedin needed to offer "something special" to attract people, but the hotel was not it.
It would cast a shadow over the Octagon that covered "the most important public space in town".
And its height would degrade the view of the Municipal Chambers and St Paul’s Cathedral from the Octagon, which was "a skyline of turrets and towers" that added to the city’s heritage appeal, he said.
"These are the little things which are often ignored, but when you come and visit somewhere . . . these are the things that make your stay."
Dunedin’s focus should be on "boutique" developments which worked with the city’s heritage, which the city would "embrace".
"If we do anything that compromises that ... we are doing ourselves a great disservice, and there’s no need to do that because the benefits of doing it right will come," he said.
Southern Heritage Trust chairman Brent Lovelock and trustee Jo Galer both also criticised the project yesterday.
The trust was normally a "quiet organisation", but in this case members had "major concerns", Dr Lovelock said.
They included the "dominating" design of the hotel, which would "tower above" its neighbours and could set a precedent for other tall buildings in the central city, Dr Lovelock said.
It was "a bit of a pity" for the man behind the project, Tekapo businessman Anthony Tosswill, that more suitable sites had not been considered, she said.
Environmental engineer Dave Hanan also expressed sympathy for Mr Tosswill, but said the hotel’s height "cannot be overlooked".
It would be a "vertical blight" on the city’s landscape, and it was time for Mr Tosswill "to go back to the drawing board", he said.
Other submitters included Madeline McCoy and her son, Henry Easton, from the Poolhouse Cafe, next to the site.
Ms McCoy worried about the loss of car parks, which were in high demand and essential for people attending events at the town hall.
They would also be needed when the Dunedin Urgent Doctors and Accident Centre, the Urgent Pharmacy and Southern Community Laboratories all relocated to Filleul St later this year, she said.
However, Rod Macleod, a retired Dunedin City Council civil engineer, said car parks at the site had always been "an interim solution".
He was involved in the upgrade of the Municipal Chambers and town hall in the 1980s and ’90s, and said conference facilities had been added with an expectation a hotel would follow.
Despite that, he objected to the hotel’s "glass curtain" design, "excessive" bulk and "unnecessary" apartments.
Surveying student Michael Baker worried a new roundabout to accommodate extra traffic could put pedestrians in harm’s way, while Dennis Dorney questioned whether tourism growth projections would occur as aviation fuel costs climbed.
Clare Munro-West said the hotel would damage the city’s environment, and distress "every resident in our bowl-shaped city who had to look at it".
The design was no better than Betterways Advisory Ltd’s earlier plans for a waterfront hotel, and "should be consigned to the same bin", she said.
Urban Cohousing Otepoti Ltd director Catherine Spence said the hotel would overwhelm the sense of place "which makes this city Dunedin".
Liz Angelo said the site would be better as a central city park, but, if a building was needed, the design needed to be sympathetic to heritage values.
"It is what tourists love about Dunedin and what brings them here. It is also what we locals love. Please, let’s not destroy it."
Valeri Schillberg, a licensed architect originally from the United States, praised Dunedin’s positive changes, including restored heritage buildings and Forsyth Barr Stadium, but said the hotel was out of scale and would be "an eyesore".
"I think it could be done if it was done well. This is nowhere near that calibre."
The hearing adjourned yesterday and will resume on August 17.
