The council has disputed the claim.
Mr Schikker is one of the owners of Mt Iron Junction Ltd which wanted to build a service station and worker accommodation on 5.8ha of rural general land beneath Mt Iron, at the entrance to Wanaka.
As part of the arrangement, the NZ Transport Agency was expected to build a roundabout to replace a dangerous intersection.
However, in April council commissioners declined Mr Schikker’s resource consent application.
Since then, Mr Schikker said, many people had come to him saying he had been given "completely the wrong advice from council".
"We were told by the council staff, the planning staff, to move forward with a resource consent application. So, we did that, in good faith."
However the commissioners found it was "impossible" to give approval because the land was zoned rural.
Mr Schikker said what he needed was a plan change.
"The devastating thing is that three years and $450,000 later, we’re back where we started from, after taking the advice of council," Mr Schikker said.
A council spokesman said “potential issues" with Mr Schikker’s proposal were communicated to him.
"Mr Schikker engaged his own lawyers and planning professionals who presumably were giving direct advice on the best course of action and should have been aware of the difficulties presented by the district plan provisions.
“Council does not give advice about whether an applicant should pursue a resource consent or district plan approach for proposed developments."
Mr Schikker said his lawyers and planners were "constantly checking themselves".
"But, if you are constantly told by the people who make the policies this is the pathway you should go down, it would be quite difficult to discount that advice and go in another direction."
Mr Schikker has appealed to the Environment Court and hopes the issue can be resolved during mediation.
