Discussion of a freight hub or inland port has been sprinkled through a future development strategy hearing in the city in the past week.
It will unavoidably be the initial focus of proceedings today, because Southern Edge Hub Farms is first up.
Southern Edge owns about 50ha next to Port Otago and Fonterra land in Dukes Rd North and wants the strategy to identify an indicative location for a freight hub or logistics park on the Taieri Plain.
In its written submission, the company commented a hub or logistics park to improve management of freight had been mooted as a potential game-changer for Dunedin for more than a decade.
Activity would be shifted from road to rail and Port Otago could achieve significant efficiency improvements.
However, one problem identified by city planners was a large inland port operation would certainly make a heavy-traffic bypass of Mosgiel necessary.
Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board chairman Andrew Simms has argued the need for a bypass has long been established anyway and planning for it should be accelerated.
The hearing about the draft future development strategy produced by the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council started on Wednesday last week.
Much of it is about ensuring there will be enough housing capacity in Dunedin in the next 30 years and highlighting development constraints, such as water network limitations.
The strategy also needs to ensure enough business land will be available and this includes industrial land, of which a shortage has been identified in the short term.
In legal submissions for the city council on the first day of the hearing, counsel Michael Garbett noted several submitters wanted the strategy to identify specifically a location for an inland freight hub.
Council officials agreed there was a reasonable basis to conclude an inland port or freight hub in the vicinity of the Dukes Rd industrial area should be added to the strategy as a potential future location, he said.
"This should be subject to identification of the likely constraints and investigations about the infrastructure upgrades required in due course," Mr Garbett said.
Assuming the hearing panel was sympathetic to the thrust of Southern Edge’s argument, the council was supportive of the general vicinity being identified.
"The property of Southern Edge Hub Farms Ltd is included in this identified area, but is not the only property included," Mr Garbett said.
It has not been entirely clear through the hearing to what extent the future development strategy should refer to the leading alternative location for an inland port — Milburn, near Milton.
This is in the Clutha district, while the development strategy is for the area covered by the Dunedin City Council.
Mr Simms told the hearing an inland port for Dunedin would benefit Port Chalmers, State Highway 88 and all of Dunedin, including the environment.
"The losers will be the people at Mosgiel, unless the bypass issue is dealt with."
A potential issue for a bypass is lack of enthusiasm from the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi for spending significant money in Otago and Southland.
Mr Simms said community support would decline rapidly if the scale of operation resulted in significantly more truck movements in Gordon Rd, Mosgiel’s main street.
If an increase in truck movements was less stark, but resulted in an even stronger case for a bypass, he expected community support could remain.
