Mr Robison, in his objection to the council's refusal to issue a demolition certificate of compliance, said it was a "nonsensical interpretation" of the City Plan that served no purpose except to hinder the development of Tauranga's lagging CBD.
He said the owner of the property needed the flexibility to alter or demolish the building. The potential for it to become a scheduled heritage building had already led to ANZ National seeking a new combined corporate site on Cameron Rd.
"Had it not been for this proposal, we could have been competing for their interest in an upgraded and extended building to meet their combined needs."
Mr Robison said banks now wanted new buildings that portrayed an image of being modern, technical and digitally savvy, and not the physical "trustworthy" image associated with solid old buildings.
Mr Harnett lodged his redevelopment plans with the council this week for the 2200sq m site after learning that the Historic Places Trust appeal had been withdrawn.
He told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend that it would be a pre-cast concrete building modelled so that it had the look and colour of sandstone.
Features included two basement carparks for 90 vehicles, two to three floors of office space with retail on both the Spring St and Durham St frontages. There would be an atrium with a courtyard in the middle to allow natural light into the offices.
On the basis of "once bitten, twice shy" Mr Harnett said he had decided to fast-track lodging his plans. In this way, the demolition became part of the consent issued for the development.
The two men encountered planning barriers by trying to obtain separate certificates to demolish the buildings without lodging accompanying plans for the new developments.
The council did not want to run the risk of vacant sites sitting around for years in the downtown waiting for development to happen.
Mr Harnett did not put a timeframe or price on his development, except that he wanted to start within five years.
The trust's Tauranga-based area manager Fiona Low said that in the end, the trust's decision to drop its appeal on Mr Harnett's building was because the other four downtown buildings in the appeal had stronger heritage values and it was better to put their efforts into those buildings. "We had to decide where to pick our battles."
The other building are the former NZI building in Spring St, Rydal House in Grey St, the middle surviving section of the Cargo Shed on Dive Cres and the National Bank building.
