Are economics the best valuation of a development, wonders Lala Frazer.
It was with a deep sense of deja vu that I read the opinion piece (ODT, 1.8.17) arguing the economic value of the proposed five-star hotel alone should encourage its approval.
In 1979, when I was approached to take a petition around against the aluminium plant proposed for Aramoana, I queried why one would oppose that, because according to the Otago Daily Times, this was going to be the economic saviour of Dunedin, bringing in money and offering jobs.
My neighbour explained why it was not a good idea to have an aluminium smelter on the footsteps of a city - rather different to the siting of a smelter at Bluff.
In 1981, being part of an organisation (Save The Otago Peninsula - generally referred to by its acronym STOP) that was formed because of the alternative proposed site of the aluminium smelter of Okia Flats (the Pyramids), and with the smelter no longer a threat, we objected through the Environment Court to an exploration licence of 90sqkm over and around Hereweka Harbour Cone which had been granted to a subsidiary of Consolidated Goldfields (Australia) Ltd. Our argument was: ''Why would you grant an exploration licence if you later wished to turn down an application for an open cast gold mine?''
In an effort to persuade us to withdraw our court case, the company met us. After listening to us talk of the importance of Hereweka to the landscape, as shown by its inclusion in work by artists from the earliest days, we were told: ''You tell us what shape you want it and we will replace that at the end!''
Hoopers and Papanui Inlets, blocked off from the sea, would, they considered form a suitable site to dispose of the thousands of tonnes of rock from an open pit mine and as tailings dams to dispose of the acid contaminated water used to extract the gold. The building of a four-lane highway across the peninsula would be necessary and would use more of the rock.
A local geologist in the then Mines Department of Otago University also tried to dissuade the society from continuing because this was a perfect ''small mine'' on their doorstep for students to study and do field work. However, he admitted that while there might be single men's quarters nearby, no families would want to live there because of the dust that would be generated if mining went ahead. Essentially, several suburbs on the Otago Peninsula would become uninhabitable.
Neither of these proposed developments, argued as being positive economically, went ahead.
Had it gone ahead, the Aramoana aluminium smelter would now most likely be closing down, but not before the resulting airborne pollutants had destroyed the albatross colony, made uninhabitable the lower harbourside settlements because of the 24-hour-7-day-a-week noise levels, and caused innumerable health problems because of those same airborne pollutants being carried past west harbour suburbs and into the city under the regularly occurring inversion layer.
If the open cast mine had gone ahead, the central part of the Otago Peninsula containing Hereweka Harbour Cone, with its bush remnants, its freshwater streams discharging eels and whitebait, its relict landscape of early farming, and most of the Peninsula's Outstanding Coastal Landscape Area would essentially be a large bare hole, and the estuaries with their abundant bird life would be poisoned.
The amount of gold assay found, while not then considered economically viable, is now equivalent to some of that being mined at Macraes Gold Mine in North Otago.
However, at the time that gold-mining was seen as a possible ''economic saviour'' for Dunedin, the only tourism operation on the peninsula was the albatross colony, and one would presume that the current value of tourism on the peninsula to Dunedin would militate against such a suggestion being entertained today.
The noteworthy thing about the article from Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan was that he admitted that he was not addressing the other values of the area in which the over height and overshadowing building was proposed.
All he was considering was the economic value of the development. One can only presume the 20% of the chamber's members who opposed the current proposal were more farsighted, and while approving the economic benefits to the city of a five-star hotel, wished an alternative site, or a lower height, that was not detrimental to the surrounding historic buildings and the views from the hills above.
Dunedin's history shows us that looking only at the economic benefits of proposed developments can lead to irreversible bad decisions. We need to also consider the environmental, historic, liveability and landscape features that may be destroyed for future generations.
-Otago Peninsula resident Lala Frazer is a trustee of the Hereweka Harbour Cone Trust, the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and a spokesperson for Save The Otago Peninsula (STOP) Inc (these are her personal views).
