An application to train, board and breed up to 180 greyhound dogs at 540 Lillicur Road, Lillicur, was lodged after a planning compliance officer visited and found the owner was operating without a planning permit.

"The owner believed they were acting within the requirements of a previous planning permit which had been granted for dog keeping on March 1996," Central Goldfields Shire Council staff said in a report.

"However this permit was not enacted within the timeframe of expiry and is no longer a valid permit."

The fresh application came before the shire's three administrators during their meeting on Tuesday night.

"We have no option, really, but to refuse this application," Hugh Delahunty, one of the administrators, said.

"Unfortunately, the amount of dogs on this area of land doesn't meet the planning requirements - not only our planning requirements, but Goulburn-Murray Water's requirements in relation to wastewater."

He was hopeful something could be done for the property's owners, in future.

"This is a difficult one - we always like to see things happening in our shire," Mr Delahunty, a former Victorian Minister for Sport and Recreation, said.

The 24-hectare site is in a rural conservation zone.

The zoning requires a planning permit for racing dog husbandry if the property owner intends to keep more than two animals.