The New Zealand Historic Places Trust board approved the registration of the harbour side as an historic area last Friday, saying it had significant heritage and cultural values.
Included in the area are goods sheds along Fryatt St, which have been earmarked for removal under the Dunedin City Council's plans for the harbourside area.
The council wanted to redevelop the area with apartments, bars and cafes. One option was to knock down the goods sheds, owned by Port Otago, to make room for apartments.
Council planning and environment policy committee chairman Cr Michael Guest said the goods sheds were dangerous buildings and blocked views of the water.
He said the buildings were riddled with asbestos.
‘‘The piles are rotting. They cannot be adapted for future use,'' he said.
The area needed to be opened up but he could not see how this could be done if the goods sheds had to be retained.
Historic Places Trust Otago-Southland area manager Owen Graham was seeking a meeting with Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunkett over the goods sheds.
But he said if the roofs of the buildings had to be changed, it could be done.
‘‘Where there is a will, there is a way,'' Mr Graham said.
There were buildings in Dunedin which had asbestos in their roofs, and they were replaced, which showed it ‘‘could be done''.
He said the trust would obviously not want to harm public health and insist on leaving the roofs intact if they were dangerous.
The goods sheds were of mixed age, and were a significant part of the port as it grew. More sheds were added along Fryatt St as the port expanded.
He said perhaps the sheds could be opened up and used as public space, and did not have to be knocked down. He said areas like Wellington and Fremantle had successfully used old buildings to revitalise their harbourside areas.
The trust was not advocating any use of the buildings, but many people seemed to be taking a ‘‘greenfields'' approach to the council's harbourside plan.
Port Otago property manager Rowana Chapman said the sheds were fully tenanted. The cladding of the roofs contained asbestos. The port company had no plans for the sheds, but it was ‘‘band-aiding'' them until plans for the area were finalised.
If any issues with asbestos arose, the company would look at replacing the roofs.
Mr Plunkett is overseas and could not be contacted.
