More than 50 people attended a meeting last night at the Ravensbourne community hall to express their concern about Port Otago’s moves to operate the container depot without any consultation with the public.
Meeting organiser Mary Schollum said although the community understood it was able to go ahead with the moves under the existing zoning, "that didn’t make it right".
"We can’t seem to be getting clear answers from everybody. We would love to have a direct face-to-face meeting with the parties involved."
The port company announced in March it would be establishing a new "pop-up" container depot at 160 Ravensbourne Rd to alleviate storage pressure at the port until it moved to its new depot in Mosgiel.
Ms Schollum said the community had major concerns about road safety.
"We have extreme concerns about people accessing the bike path; the trucks aren’t actually going to see them until they’re committed."
They were also concerned about the industrial activity affecting the greater community.
"Just because something is zoned industrial a long time ago, it doesn’t mean it should remain so. The world has changed."
Resident Paula Stickings urged the Ravensbourne community to form a society, and speak with one voice on the issue.
"The local community needs to speak with unity ... just as the people of South Dunedin had to mobilise, so do we.
"It’s fundamentally a conflict of human rights against commercial rights and bad legislation."
West Harbour Community Board member Jarrod Hodson said he was concerned about the safety of the site and the noise.
"The community needs to be recognised as an affected party on any future resource consents."
Several attendees at the meeting were worried it would take "someone to get killed" before their concerns were heard.
They also disagreed with NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s classification of SH88 as a "low risk" highway and felt the activity would lead to noise pollution and visual pollution.
Much of the meeting consisted of discussion about the best way to form an incorporated society.
There were also calls to engage legal advice to see whether the community had a means to push back on the proposal.
Harbourview Stadium Hotel owner Hu Zhang said the committee needed more volunteers.
"We are a stand-alone community; nobody has consulted with us on this proposal."
Once Port Otago had finished using the area, Dr Zhang said he would like to see it converted into greenfields or "something the public could use".
There were no Port Otago representatives at the meeting.
