The veto occurred despite council staff recommendations that the project had merit.

The original project proposal from Meriton included plans for a 63-storey tower, which would have been as “tall as Trump Tower in New York” and “Sydney’s tallest residential building”, according to a 7 News report.

The proposal was received under current Labor mayor of Ryde Jerome Laxale, who will be pitted against Dominello in next year’s March election.

The proposed “Laxale towers” sparked outrage in the community, with their most vocal opponent being Dominello.

Tuesday night’s vote against the proposed towers is reflective of his fiery anti-development campaign, which has largely been carried out over social media platforms Facebook and Twitter.

Dominello has already succeeded in securing a two-year suspension on new rezoning applications for residential housing in Ryde.

This is the only council area in which such a freeze applies.

He has been accused of basing his entire pre-election campaign on blockading apartment dwellings and increased density in the area, despite these aspects being foundational to the Liberal state government’s own policies.

In March, the Greater Sydney Commission set a five-year housing target for Ryde of 7600 new dwellings.

Dominello is advocating to plummet those targets “to something that is more consistent with Lane Cove and Hunters Hill”, which stand at 1900 and 150 new dwellings respectively.

Dominello is also state Minister for Finance, Services and Property and a close friend of current NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian.

When Berejiklian was elected as Premier in 2017, she nominated housing affordability as her primary focus, with increased housing supply the main policy to deliver more affordable homes.

More recently, however, the Premier has expressed concerns about over-development, stating that some parts of Sydney “cannot handle extra development”, while calling for a halving in the state’s migrant in-take.

Dominello is a third generation Italo-Australian, while Berejiklian is the daughter of Armenian immigrants.