At their most recent meeting on March 8, councillors voted unanimously to deny Geoff and Janenne Kidd's plans to rezone seven "lifestyle blocks" for residential use near the Olympic Highway.

A report, prepared for councillors by planning staff, said council had advised the Kidds "on numerous occasions" that their proposal would not be supported because of its proximity to the army base, after concerns were raised by the Department of Defence.

Mr Kidd has disputed this, saying their early discussions with council planning staff were positive.

"They encouraged and supported this proposal and provided us with guidelines of what we needed to include in our proposal to address all items of concern," he said.

"The fact that council have had a high turnover of senior planning staff and for some time have been unable to replace such senior planning staff has now been used against us."

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Council director of regional activation Michael Keys denied this claim "emphatically", saying there was a industry shortage of skilled planners that had not been used against the Kidds in "any way, shape or form".

"I stand by the advice that has been provided by council staff on multiple occasions. This decision reflects that advice," he said.

"The fact that we disagree doesn't mean that it's an unfair hearing."

A letter from council to Salvestro Planning, dated March 2018, said "it would be negligent not to indicate that there is very little support for residential development on the subject land".

Mrs Kidd said they had tried really hard to address potential issues related to the site's proximity to the army base and had paid to have noise testing done in order to present their best case for the development.

Their planner Garry Salvestro said the advice of council in 2017 was to undertake the critical noise studies and undergo pre-consultation with Defence.

"We all knew the obstacles and we knew that it was going to be difficult to get there. But council would never have said we had no hope, because they're not there to prejudge a proposal," he said.

Mr Salvestro has questioned why council recently approved new subdivisions in Uranquinty that are closer to the Kapooka firing range and other noise making areas of the army base than the residences the Kidds want to develop.

Mr Keys said the Uranquinty land in question was already zoned for residential development. He was unable to answer further questions related to this rezoning.