Vodafone New Zealand's plan to build a 30m communications tower in Scroggs Hill Rd, Brighton, will next week face expanded opposition at a Dunedin City Council resource consent hearing.
The company's last attempt was scuttled after hearings committee chairman Cr Colin Weatherall ruled there had been insufficient public notification.
That has now been completed, and all eight further submissions have highlighted either health or visual concerns.
The issue of mobile telephone communications for the south coast arose in 2005, when Ocean View resident Suzanne Lane organised a petition calling for better coverage.
The call struck a chord, with 400 residents from Waldronville to Taieri Mouth signing.
In 2006, Telecom announced it would build a mobile phone tower in the area.
This year, Vodafone New Zealand applied for permission from the Dunedin City Council to build a 30m communications tower - more than twice the height allowed under district plan rules - on land near the Saddle Hill conservation area.
But in May, a resource consent hearing ended 90 minutes after it started, when Cr Weatherall said he was not satisfied that the limited public notification of Vodafone's proposal to build the tower had been adequate.
The hearing will be reconvened on Tuesday next week, and a report from council planner Jeremy Grey said residents at 13 properties had been notified.
Apart from health concerns, residents had also called for Vodafone to build its facility on the existing Telecom tower, something Telecom said in 2006 it was open to.
Mr Grey said an independent landscape assessment had noted the environment at the proposed tower was more sensitive to its installation than a more remote, rural property.
He recommended if the "permitted baseline" - what could be built on the site as of right - was applied by the committee, the application should be granted.
But if the committee decided the sensitivity of the environment was "exceptional", it should be declined.
