In an advertisement in the paper on Saturday, Waitaki district councillor Peter Garvan detailed four points explaining why he opposed the multimillion-dollar floating luxury hotel proposed by the community-owned Oamaru Licensing Trust.
Today, Oamaru identity Alan McLay has placed an advertisement copying the design of Cr Garvan's but endorsing the floating hotel and offering a point-by-point rebuttal of the former advertisement.
Mr McLay, who is a member of the Oamaru Licensing Trust, a former Waitaki mayor, a member of the economic development group Venture Waitaki and a director of Oamaru Adventure Park, which has proposed a zipline for the harbour, said he saw ``too good an opportunity to let go by''.
``His arguments just seemed so weak to me,'' Mr McLay said.
The photo Cr Garvan ran with the advertisement, which Mr McLay has also used, shows the two former wool sheds in Waterfront Rd, and Mr McLay said his understanding of the proposal, under development from an as-yet anonymous third party, was that it would be ``substantially smaller'' than the smaller of the two sheds.
While there had been positive development in the harbour ``in the off-season it hurts'', and a lack of accommodation had also hindered the Oamaru Opera House's ability to perform as a venue for conferences, for which it was intended.
Cr Garvan said as a former long-serving member of the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust he remained ``passionate'' about the historic harbour area and he ran the initial advertisement ``to get my views out there unimpeded by others''.
He also wanted to ``give a clear message'' to the licensing trust that spending money to advance the project could be risky.
``The Oamaru Licensing Trust have every right to do what they want to do, no problem, but they should know early on, before they spends tens of thousands [of dollars] that there will be serious opposition,'' he said.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher noted it was not a council project but said once the ``final detail'' was through for the proposal, ``people might potentially change their minds''.
He called Cr Garvan's approach of taking out an advertisement to express his views an ``interesting approach'' but said he believed ``it's better to talk to the people themselves about what the concerns are''.
