At least three consent applications received by council planning staff in recent months have cited the council's draft spatial plan as part of their arguments for consent.
The draft plan lays out the council's vision for Dunedin's development to 2050, including expanded commercial areas in some parts of the city, but has yet to be finalised or approved by city councillors.
In Roslyn, the draft plan envisages an enlarged commercial area and identifies the former fire station - which has a residential zoning - as suitable for future commercial use.
The suggestion has been picked up by developers who have applied for consent to build a commercial cafe and physiotherapy gymnasium inside the former fire station, despite the building's residential zoning.
The proposal has attracted 12 submissions, including five from neighbours opposed to the development, and will be the subject of a council hearings committee meeting next week.
Mitchell Partnerships, on behalf of the developers, argued in the consent application the draft spatial plan had already identified the building's suitability for future commercial use.
The application acknowledged the plan's draft status, but said that meant the changes it envisaged should be given "only moderate weight" when the council hearings committee decided whether to issue a consent.
A report by council planner Lianne Darby, to be considered at next week's public consent hearing, disagreed.
She argued the spatial plan's draft status meant it should be given "very little weight, if any" when deciding whether to issue consent.
Council planning staff contacted were reluctant to comment, but said the issue was "sensitive" and would require "a judgement call".
However, council city development manager Dr Anna Johnson said developers were citing the plan in an attempt to improve their chances of obtaining consents.
"There's probably people that see it as advantageous to their consent application. They're trying to use it, but I think in some cases inappropriately.
"None of them should be doing it because it's not an operative policy yet," she said.
Mitchell Partnerships senior resource management consultant Megan Justice, who wrote the company's consent application for the Roslyn fire station, declined to comment ahead of next week's consent hearing.
The draft spatial plan followed extensive community consultation, beginning with the Your City Our Future initiative, which eventually led to 214 submissions on the draft plan and a public hearing earlier this year.
Dr Johnson said modifications were still being made to the draft plan as a result of the consultation, and the final document was not expected to be operative until later this year, after being signed off at a full council meeting.
The Resource Management Act allowed council hearings committees to consider plans or proposed plans, such as a draft district plan or other statutory document, as part of their deliberations.
Draft statutory documents carried more weight the closer to completion they were, but Dr Johnson said that did not apply to the council's draft spatial plan, which was a non-statutory document prepared under the Local Government Act.
Once operative, it would be up to the council hearings committee to decide what weight to give the spatial plan in future consent application hearings, she believed.
