Housing intensification within Dunedin is proving to be detrimental for the maintenance of built heritage in the city, a heritage advocate says.
"Character-contributing homes are being demolished at a slightly alarming rate," Southern Heritage Trust chairwoman Jo Galer said at a Dunedin City Council annual plan hearing on Monday.
"A lot of Dunedin suburbs are on a knife edge," she said.
Ms Galer described the council’s district plan, which lays out the rules for development, as flawed.
Planning provisions needed to be reviewed, "before we lose too much of what Dunedin is known for, which is our heritage".
Ms Galer said she accepted warm and dry housing needed to be developed, but there was not enough protection of heritage buildings.
The city council decided this year a heritage action plan should be drawn up.
Dunedin deputy mayor Sophie Barker, who proposed a plan, said in February the council was constrained in what it could do.
She said a holistic approach was warranted for issues that ranged from ensuring a strong pipeline of contracting work to dealing with "demolition by neglect".
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