Overview
- Goodman told the NSW Department of Planning it would not proceed with the A$1.2 billion Project Mars application, citing evolving regulatory settings and feedback from the local community.
- The proposal would have sat about 20 metres from homes and roughly 160 metres from Lane Cove West Public School, which helped fuel hundreds of objections from residents and organised groups.
- Utility providers Sydney Water and Ausgrid formally warned the project could strain water and power systems and raised safety concerns, with Sydney Water saying it could not support the plan without further assessments.
- The withdrawal follows intense scrutiny at a federal Senate inquiry, where lawmakers pressed Goodman over the site and social licence, and it is the latest of several recent Australian data‑centre proposals to be abandoned.
- Industry and policymakers now face trade‑offs between attracting multibillion‑dollar AI investment and setting clearer siting, infrastructure and environmental rules that communities accept.