A flood study will have to be completed before a new regeneration plan for Jaywick is devised, the Gazette can reveal.
Residents were hopeful a new option for the resort would be ready for consultation soon.
It follows public uproar at the first blueprint revealed 18 months ago by planners Llewelyn Davies Yeang.
The most severe of three plans would have seen more than 500 homes demolished in the resort's Brooklands estate.
They went back to the drawing board to devise a fourth option, but the Gazette has learnt the London-based company has not produced a suitable blueprint.
As a result, a flood study will have to take place before a new plan is on the table.
Mick Masterson, chairman of Friends of Brooklands, said the Jaywick Agencies Group (JAG), which is behind the masterplan, has left residents "high and dry".
Nigel Brown, Tendring Council's communications manager, said: "This work highlighted the need for a strategic flood study to be undertaken which is in hand.
"Once completed it will be taken to the table, with all the information gathered so far, and used to develop more researched options that will be taken to the local people for consultation."
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