The Central Otago District Council has gone "overboard" in excluding Oamaru stone from its revised list of permitted building materials, a submitter told the council's hearings panel yesterday.
The panel began up to eight weeks of hearings on submissions to its district plan changes.
One of the most controversial changes was the exclusion of the stone as a suitable building material for rural homes.
More than 180 submissions were received on that topic.
Most of the submitters asked for the stone to remain as a suitable building material.
The panel heard from three submitters yesterday - Gerald Somerville appeared in support of his submission and evidence was tabled from the immediate past president of the Institute of Quarrying, George Kelcher, and Dooleys Masonry managing director Bill Dooley.
In his report to the panel, the council's planning consultant David Whitney has recommended the matter be reconsidered and any reference to Oamaru stone as an unsuitable rural building material be removed. Mr Somerville told the panel he planned to build a house on a small farmlet he owned at Park-burn near Cromwell and was shocked to hear Oamaru stone was deemed unsuitable.
"I wanted to be able to use it as I feel it's a natural product," he said.
He had been told it would cost $3000-$5000 to apply for resource consent to use the stone -"that's more than the stone is going to cost".
The council was going "overboard" on the materials and colours it preferred and its rulings were unreasonable, he said.
He owned a 150-year-old house near Dunedin which was partly made out of Oamaru stone and did not look out of place in a rural setting.
If he built an Oamaru stone home on his flat block of land at Parkburn, he wanted the roof to be orange.
"If it was on a hill it would stand out if it was white. Then again, you could have a white bus parked there for 12 months, which would look just as bad."
The council's concern was the visual effect of light-coloured buildings in a rural setting.
"You get more reflection from glass in certain conditions," Mr Somerville said.
In his submission, Mr Dooley said he supported the amendment proposed by Mr Whitney.
"Oamaru stone blends beautifully with the Central Otago stone and fits exceptionally well with the existing natural landscape as a building material with a proven history and it has been used in award-winning homes in the Central Otago region," Mr Dooley said.
Mr Kelcher also said he "strongly supported" the change in wording recommended by Mr Whitney.
Mr Whitney told the panel that another plan change gave the council an adequate mechanism to consider the exterior colour of buildings, so an Oamaru stone finish could be carefully assessed if it was in a particularly sensitive landscape.
The panel will hear more evidence tomorrow on the Oamaru stone aspect of the plan changes.
