A Dunedin City Council resource consent committee has turned down a plan for a nine-bedroom student residential unit in the Cosy Dell area of Dunedin.
A hearings committee of Crs Colin Weatherall, Fliss Butcher and Andrew Noone in April heard Richard and Jo Morshuis' argument in support of their plan to build the unit at 62 Queen St, next to an existing 12-bedroom unit.
Objectors at the meeting argued there was a lack of parking, and infill housing on the streetscape would compromise older houses set back from the street with plenty of open space and mature trees.
The committee ruled a parking shortfall at the existing unit continued by virtue of existing use rights.
Those would remain if there was no change to the site, but if the proposal went ahead, the intensity of the parking problem would be worse, and those rights would be lost.
The committee also accepted another multiple-roomed building in the area would further dilute the permanent population there, an issue referred to in the city's district plan.
The proposed building would obliterate views of the building already on the site, which the committee described as a "character residence".
