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Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council threw out the plan for nine homes and an apartment block of the back of houses in July.
But the developer has now appealed and the final decision rests with the national Planning Inspectorate.
Fifty residents and Solihull MP Lorely Burt opposed the plan and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s planning officer recommended it be rejected.
They said the site was in the Green Belt ‘and therefore residential development would constitute inappropriate development in policy terms’.
The block would have included nine apartments. All homes would have been accessed via a new road between 116 and 118 Widney Manor Road.
The official council refusal said: “The site to which this proposal relates is in an area where Green Belt Policies apply.
“The very special circumstances put forward with the application do not outweigh the harm the development would cause to the openness of the Green Belt and harm by definition.
“The proposed backland development provides for an incongruous addition out of keeping with the character of the surrounding area which has a strong cohesive relationship with houses directly fronting the street built along a linear building line and the proposed access provides little interest with poor surveillance.”
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