Neil Jens has been a strong opponent of the Lake Federation resort since it was originally proposed four years ago.

Now, he said the project had been given enough chances.

"Everything that was proposed originally, in my opinion, was geared towards a resort but they were really trying to make a residential development out of rural land," he said.

"Despite all the hype that went with it, that's what I always felt.

"This really is a residential development and council should throw it out; they've had their time."

Mr Jens said the zoning of the land, which was changed to comprehensive development for the project, now needed to revert to farming.

"It's rural land and it should be returned to that," he said.

"They always linked the development proposal with the rezoning and now that the development proposal is out, the rezoning should be out as well.

"It was always on the basis that the development went ahead as planned and that is clearly not going to happen now. The game is over."

He said a residential development on the land would be a disaster for Ballarat.

"It's completely out of context with any forward thinking planning for Ballarat.

"It absolutely wrecks the whole future planning strategy, because there is a big gap between it and the existing residential areas."

Council considered the zoning of the land last week, after a schedule holding developers to their plans within the comprehensive development zone expired.

But after much discussion and some apparent confusion, councillors voted to defer any decision.

Council's planning and development director Darren Booth said the matter currently before council did not relate to the actual development.