Overview
- Goodman told the NSW Department of Planning on Monday that it was withdrawing the development application for Project Mars, a proposed A$1.2 billion, roughly 90‑megawatt data centre in Lane Cove.
- The decision followed sustained local opposition and Goodman’s admission at a federal Senate inquiry that the project had failed to win a social licence from nearby residents and school communities.
- Two utilities, Ausgrid and Sydney Water, formally flagged technical and capacity concerns about the proposal, citing electrocution and fire risks and saying the water and wastewater systems could not support the centre without detailed upgrades.
- Goodman’s planning documents showed the site sat about 20 metres from the nearest house and roughly 160 metres from Lane Cove West Public School and estimated peak water use at about 35 litres per second or 1.4 million litres a day.
- The withdrawal highlights growing tension between a large national pipeline of data‑centre investments and tighter regulation, with state fast‑track rules and planned federal measures likely to push projects toward sites with stronger community consent and utility capacity.