Martin McPherson described the new pump station, right next to the Alexandra bridge on Bridge Hill, as an "eyesore" when he raised the matter at a board meeting earlier this week.
He told his fellow board members he had fielded many questions about the "mystery building" constructed in the prime location.
"I've been asked what it is, why it was built there and why that design, and why is it so obtrusive," Mr McPherson said.
[comment caption=Should the pump house be disguised?]He had been assured landscaping was planned to make the building less obvious, "and it certainly needs disguising".
It was a "room with a view ".
Central Otago District Council assets manager Murray Washington said the building was a water supply booster pump station, which had recently come into operation.
"Essentially, it pumps water up to the Bridge Hill reservoir - and by doing so it means we can equalise the pressure in the town, to avoid the excess pressure we sometimes get in the system," Mr Washington said.
The site was reserve land and it was right beside the water main.
"We didn't have a lot of choice about where to build it," he said.
It had to be built somewhere on the rising main.
Approached by the Otago Daily Times yesterday, the Alexandra spokeswoman for the Central Lakes branch of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, Anne Kinnaird, said it was difficult to speculate on what the pump station section might be worth if it was available as a residential building site.
