Project Mars Data Centre

I object to this huge project that will interfere with the lives of many sububan people in the surrounding area. The wildlife will be affected with the removal of trees as well as the noise pollution.

Grounds for objection include:
- There are better places for data centres to be built than next to houses and community facilities.
- The significant impact on the local community, particularly the residents of Lane Cove West through noise, vibration, over height facility that will operate 24 hrs 7 days a week
- The Social Impact Assessment is not credible. It is not independent and many of its conclusions or assessments are wrong.
- Significant loss of employment in the area and the change in the character of the business park.
- The poor state of the planning proposal documentation which includes multiple errors and conflicting statements as to what is actually being proposed.

Introduction
I am a long-term resident of Lane Cove West writing to formally object to Goodman Group’s proposed data centre at 12 Mars Road (Project Mars). I do not oppose digital infrastructure investment in principle. My objection is specific: this development, at this location, at this moment, is the wrong project in the wrong place. It adds a further burden to a residential and educational precinct already under serious cumulative pressure. I urge the Department to refuse this application, or at minimum require substantial redesign and binding community protections before any approval is considered.
The Proposal
Goodman proposes to demolish four warehouses and replace them with two data centre buildings spanning 18,830 sqm, drawing 90 megawatts of power, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The $1.2 billion project (Project Mars) would be the fourth or fifth significant data centre facility built, approved, or in planning in Lane Cove West Business Park — all within approximately 600 metres of each other, alongside established homes, a primary school, and community green space. The developer’s own planning correspondence acknowledges that ‘bulk and scale’, ‘noise’, and ‘air quality impacts’ are key assessment issues. These concerns demand rigorous scrutiny, not a streamlined approval.
Proximity to Homes, Schools and Community Space
The site sits just over 100 metres from residential housing, with homes in Banksia Close within 150–200 metres of the development boundary. Families — including children — would live in the direct operational shadow of a 90MW industrial facility running cooling systems around the clock with diesel backup generators on site. Residents are already reporting brownouts and voltage fluctuations linked to the existing data centre cluster.
Lane Cove West Public School and a nearby childcare centre are located close to the proposed development. Children in outdoor play spaces, classrooms with open windows, and PE sessions would be directly exposed to noise from cooling infrastructure and intermittent diesel generator testing. There is currently no regulatory framework governing air quality from diesel generator operation near schools. The EIS must model predicted air quality at these facilities under all scenarios — including generator testing and emergency activation — and testing must be strictly prohibited during school hours and outdoor learning periods.
The development also borders Blackman Park, described by locals as the lungs of Lane Cove and used by a large proportion of the community every weekend. Open spaces are particularly vulnerable to noise propagation, as they lack the sound barriers of built-up areas. Approving this facility without comprehensive acoustic modelling of the park as a receptor would be a serious planning failure.
Environmental Impacts
Noise: Data centres generate continuous noise from cooling systems and generators that does not stop at night. The most affected residential area near the existing AirTrunk SYD1 facility is already assessed at 50 dB(A) during the day and 43 dB(A) at night — comparable to a busy office. Project Mars has not been assessed against this cumulative baseline. Night-time low-frequency noise from multiple co-located cooling installations poses real risks to sleep quality and long-term health.
Air quality: Diesel generators contain particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and known carcinogens. Children are disproportionately vulnerable. There is no state or local oversight framework for diesel emissions from data centre generators. A mandatory real-time community notification system must be required for any generator activation event.
Water: The facility will use adiabatic cooling drawing on potable drinking water, with no current regulatory requirement for rainwater harvesting or recycled water use. Sydney-wide projections suggest data centre water demand could reach 250 million litres per day if all proposed facilities proceed — equivalent to the full output of the Sydney Desalination Plant. The EIS must quantify this project’s water consumption and commit to binding recycled water targets.
Grid reliability: A 90MW draw on an already-strained local grid risks brownouts and blackouts for nearby households and businesses. AEMO projects NSW data centre demand will rise from 5% to 11% of grid load by 2030. Any approval must be conditional on demonstrated, funded grid upgrades that protect existing residential supply reliability.
The Cluster Problem
The most serious issue is cumulative impact. Lane Cove West Business Park now has five data centres built, approved, or in planning. Each application has been assessed in isolation. No comprehensive cumulative impact assessment — covering noise, air quality, water, power, traffic, and visual amenity — has been conducted for the precinct as a whole. This is a systemic planning failure.
Planning decisions made one application at a time, each individually satisfying minimum thresholds, can collectively produce an outcome no community would have accepted had the full picture been presented upfront. The combined noise of three or more cooling installations. The combined diesel emissions during a simultaneous grid event. The combined water draw. The combined power demand on infrastructure never designed for this intensity of use — none of this is captured in a single-project EIS.
The NSW Government’s own March 2026 Data Centres Consultation Paper identifies cumulative impacts near sensitive sites as a key principle. That principle must be applied to this very assessment, not deferred as a future policy ambition while the next facility in the cluster is approved. The Committee for Sydney has noted NSW still lacks an overarching spatial strategy for data centre deployment. Until one exists, applications in sensitive locations like Lane Cove West must be assessed with maximum caution.
Planning Process
As a State Significant Development, Project Mars bypasses Lane Cove Council, sidelining elected representatives who know this precinct and have formally raised concerns about height, noise, protected bushland, the community nursery, and cumulative infrastructure burden. Council has rightly called for data centres to be returned to local approval processes. I support that position.
Lane Cove West Business Park also has a single point of entry and exit — a serious emergency access constraint if multiple facilities are affected simultaneously. The five-week public exhibition window for a $1.2 billion project with lifetime community impacts is inadequate. A public meeting in Lane Cove West should be held before any determination is made.
Conclusion
I am not anti-technology. I am a resident who chose Lane Cove West for its community character, schools, green spaces, and liveability. The data centre industry is moving fast, driven by commercial pressure and the AI infrastructure race. That speed cannot be allowed to outpace the planning system’s obligation to protect the people who live here. Lane Cove West is not a sacrifice zone. I urge the Department to refuse this application.

See submission

Dear Project Review Panel,
This is a fantastic project and should be let to go ahead.

Data centres are a vital piece of modern infrastructure, that Australia has been falling behind on for the past two decades. We need more data centres around to ensure we are still competitive against other countries in our region and the wider world. Without data centres located near urban centres, the internet would slowly grind to a halt.

Based on the plans, the existing electricity infrastructure is already very close to this site - so hopefully minimal effort is required to connect in a 90 MW facility.

My own experiences tell me that data centres are some of the most effective uses of existing industrial areas. They are relatively clean compared to what else could be put on the site - using mostly just electricity and the occasional diesel burn. They could be putting in a much dirtier, heavy industry into this zone, however, choosing a data centre ensures that everyone knows that it will mainly producing low-impact environmental pollution (or close to zero).

There will be extremely low traffic impacts when this facility is operational - as no one in IT actually wants to go to a data centre.

I see very few down sides to this facility being built in the proposed location, and therefore, suggest it should go ahead.

Regards,

I am a grandparent and also a resident living in this area, and I have serious concerns about this project.

The site is very close to homes and also to Lane Cove West Public School. I do not think enough has been done to properly understand how this will affect people living nearby. The report says that air pollution limits could be exceeded in some situations, which is worrying, especially for children.

This is not a small development. It includes many diesel generators and will operate all the time, day and night. This will bring ongoing noise and industrial activity into a residential area. People living nearby should not have to deal with constant noise and disruption.

The environmental impacts are also a concern, including the amount of water being used, the removal of trees, and possible contamination. These issues affect the future of the area and should be taken more seriously.

Overall, this type of development is not appropriate so close to homes and a school. It creates ongoing impacts that are not acceptable for a residential community.

For these reasons, as a resident of this area, I strongly object to this project.

I am a grandparent and a local resident, and I am not comfortable with this development being approved in this area.

This is a very large facility being placed close to both homes and a primary school. I do not think it is reasonable to introduce this level of industrial activity into a residential community. The number of diesel generators and the possibility of pollution exceeding limits, even occasionally, should not be considered acceptable so close to where families live.

The fact that the facility will operate continuously is also a major concern. This means ongoing noise and activity at all hours, which will affect both the learning environment at the school and the general quality of life for residents.

There are also broader concerns about water use, tree removal, and contamination. These are not minor issues and will have lasting impacts on the local environment.

This proposal does not reflect the character or expectations of a residential area, and the benefits do not outweigh the impacts.

As someone who lives in this community, this development presents unacceptable impacts to residential amenity and community wellbeing, and I object to the proposal.

I am writing to express my concern regarding the proposed data centre development at 12 Mars Road in Lane Cove West, and its potential impacts on my personal life, the community, and its surrounding environment and wildlife.

I am a third year university student, studying full time alongside working and other extra-curricular activities. Hence, my sleep is very important for me to run a functional life. Noise pollution is a large concern with this data centre, as data centre cooling systems run 24/7 and can emit a continuous hum that travels over long distances. Hence, this noise may disrupt my sleep, and functioning during the day, along with having continuous impacts on surrounding residencies and wildlife.

Noise pollution from the construction of this project also will have a large impact, as it will be constant for a number of months.

At university, I major in environmental studies. Hence I am very familiar with these sorts of proposals and the negative impacts it may have socially, environmentally, economically, etc. This data centre is being built adjacent to Blackman Park which is home to many Australian flora and fauna, being a part of Lane Cove National Park (a protected area btw). Blackman park is also a large park crucial for community public space, and an area where families and friends can come together. Allocating this data centre right next door to this park can decrease the validity of this exceptional public space area as people might be put off coming to it due to its pollution.

I hope with this backlash received by the surrounding community, a correct EIA is utilised:

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Process to assess projected development proposals, understand their impacts, mitigate negative effects and support sustainable decisions of whether or not to go ahead with the project.

Please review the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 to establish if this proposal fits under the framework for strategic environmental planning.

This project will have major negative ramifications for not only the residents but also the wildlife and protected parks in the area. There are already significant water and power shortages and the building of a data center which’s power consumption is expected to be 90mw, will apply significant pressure to these resources. All of these negative impacts on the area will not even be offset by boosting the local economy as the project plans to only hire 26 people. Time and time again, we are being shown that the building of these data centers ruin the lives of the people living near them. They heavily deplete resources, especially water and have increased power outages. Further this specific plan will cause destruction of environmental conservation land. I am really against this plan and hope the negative ramifications are taken heavily into consideration.

I come to Blackman Park regularly with my family and dogs and it’s become one of those places that feels like a second home to us. My kids play soccer there, we walk our dogs around the oval or hang out in the dog park, we walk through the beautiful bush or sit on the grass, or just enjoy the open space and the calm that comes with it. I also grew up coming to play tennis at Blackman Park every Friday night throughout my childhood with several close Polish families. It’s one of the few places nearby where you can genuinely switch off.

That’s why this proposal is so concerning.

What draws us to this area is the greenery, the openness and the sense that it’s a healthy, active space for families and kids. Introducing a large-scale industrial development right next to that changes the feeling of the place completely. It’s not just about what gets built, it’s about everything that comes with it – the constant background noise, the visual impact, the loss of trees and the years of construction.

From a parent’s perspective, it’s hard to accept that a space used so heavily by children for sport and recreation could be exposed to ongoing noise and disruption. Training sessions, games and even just time outdoors should feel energising and safe, not overshadowed by construction works or the presence of heavy infrastructure operating day and night.

The removal of mature trees and reduction in green space is also deeply concerning. These are not just “trees on a site” – they are part of the character of the area and contribute to the experience that so many families value. Once that’s gone, it’s gone.

Even as someone who doesn’t live in the immediate streets, I can see how much this will change the amenity of the area – not just for residents, but for the broader community who rely on these shared spaces for sport, exercise and downtime.

This doesn’t feel like the right location for a development of this scale. The impacts on amenity, noise and the overall environment are too significant, especially given how heavily this area is used by families and children.

For these reasons, I strongly object to the proposal.

The project at 12 Mars Road is fundamentally unsuitable due to its close proximity to residential and recreational areas. The development poses unacceptable risks to public health and potential significant noise and air pollution, directly violating established planning standards. Such a location is incompatible with a project of this scale and nature. Consequently, the proposal presents an indefensible burden on the community that cannot be mitigated. I strongly urge the Department to prioritise local well-being and regulatory compliance by formally rejecting this proposal. The environmental and social costs are simply too high to overlook.

Dear Panel
I have attached my objections.
Thank you.

My submission is attached in the attachment. Please read it and understand my concerns. Thank you.

Please see attached.

Please see attached.