Two weeks after members of the Dunedin Centre subcommittee agreed to proceed with the "alternative option without atrium", councillors again disagreed over the merits of the proposal at yesterday's economic development committee.
The alternative option - to be put to the Dunedin City Council meeting on November 3 - would result in the controversial Harrop St "glass clip-on" atrium being abandoned, with staged construction to rebuild the Glenroy Auditorium and extend the Municipal Chambers undertaken instead.
Subject to approval, the Municipal Chambers upgrade would begin in September 2009 and be completed by May 2010, council strategy and development general manager Kate Styles said.
The Municipal Chambers could then be used as a "miniature conference centre" while the town hall and Dunedin Centre were upgraded, beginning in February 2010, she said.
The town hall was due to be completed in January 2011 and the Dunedin Centre in January 2012.
The proposal had the support of most councillors yesterday, but Cr Bill Acklin - the only member of the subcommittee to vote against the proposal earlier this month - again raised concerns.
An alternative option to excavate the town hall's basement for conference and performance space - which was among options discarded by the subcommittee - would create a facility "right up there" in New Zealand, he believed.
"The option recommended now I think misses a huge opportunity," he said.
Other councillors worried excavations would lead to engineering challenges and delays, adding to the project's cost.
Any historic finds, requiring Historic Places Trust involvement, would only compound the headaches.
"We just don't know what we are going to find under there, and to me the risk factor is too great," Cr Syd Brown said.
Cr Neil Collins - who was not a member of the subcommittee - questioned the need for the development at all, saying there was no need to turn the town hall from "a sow's ear into a silk purse".
Instead, a greenfield site elsewhere in Dunedin should be considered for a purpose-built facility, he believed.
Cr Richard Walls said the town hall development was essential to make the facility "usable in this modern age".
Opus Architectural principal architect Jeff Thompson, who first suggested basement excavations, told councillors the project was "possible" but would require further investigation.
Cr Acklin planned to raise the matter again at next month's council meeting, when the recommended alternative option was expected to go to a vote.
