The building owners, Mervyn and Patricia Miller, of Mosgiel have applied for resource consent to demolish and remove an old stone building in McDonald St, which is listed as a heritage building in the district plan.
The Central Otago District Council's hearings panel heard the application yesterday and has reserved its decision.
Ten submissions were received, eight opposing demolition, one supporting and one neutral.
Last year the council agreed to the partial demolition of the building because of concerns about public safety.
It had been advised that parts were unsound and dangerous, after being damaged by fire.
"The state of it now, it's past the point of no return and I'm not going to rebuild it," Mr Miller told the panel.
He wanted to redevelop the site.
Opponent David White said if the council allowed the demolition to proceed it was making a "total mockery" of the efforts of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) and other organisations, including the council itself, to conserve heritage for present and future generations.
"If demolition is the end result, the Central Otago District Council plan for heritage may as well be torn up and abolished."
Chairman of the Central Otago Heritage Trust, Graye Shattky said the panel needed to adjudicate between two opposing viewpoints - "those who perceive heritage value as something to be preserved and those who wish to remove an apparently useless ruin and, presumably, replace it with something useful and modern."
The trust opposed further demolition of what was a valuable heritage building.
"Our opposition arises not only because approval would ensure that virtually all evidence of past use would be erased from an undoubtedly important local historic site, but also out of our concern that principles and processes regarding the preservation of heritage be observed and where they might be shown to have failed or be lacking, they are suitably reinforced."
Mr Shattky said the partial demolition of the building appeared to have destroyed far more of the building than the background reports deemed necessary.
Had the work been supervised by someone with heritage building qualifications and expertise, it was likely more of the original structure would have been preserved.
The NZHPT also opposed the demolition.
Otago Southland area manager Owen Graham sought the retention and stabilisation of the remaining building walls and retention of all materials on site for future use.
NZHPT regional archaeologist Matthew Schmidt said it was possible to stabilise the remaining walls and build a structure on top using the stone on site.
He gave several examples in Otago where existing stone had been used to partly rebuild historic buildings, including the Lindis Hotel and the Bendigo Bakery.
Matthew Anderson said owners of historic buildings in Alexandra's town centre had been allowed to destroy them for commercial gain.
"Over the years we have seen the slow erosion of historical structures in Alexandra while towns like Clyde, Cromwell, Arrowtown and Queenstown embrace their early architecture," he said.
Thomas and Julie Batt, who supported the application, said the ruins were an "eyesore" and the site should be cleaned up.
Council planning consultant David Whitney has recommended consent be granted, subject to conditions, including the owner being responsible for ensuring the remains are investigated and recorded by an archaeologist.
A portion of one or more of the original stone walls should be incorporated into any future development on site, he said, and the schist material on site should be made available for restoring other heritage buildings in Alexandra.
