Goodman Group Withdraws Its 90 MW Lane Cove Data Centre After 374 Objections

Goodman Group withdrew its application for Project Mars, a 90-megawatt data centre at 12 Mars Road in Lane Cove West, on Sydney's lower north shore, in a letter to the New South Wales planning department dated Sept. 28, 2026 ³. The proposal had drawn 374 public submissions, and nine of them supported it ³. Guy Smith, Goodman's head of planning, gave the reason in the letter. "Having considered emerging federal and state policy, Goodman has concluded that it will not progress with the development application," Smith wrote ³.

The building would have stood three storeys tall across 21,832 square metres, about 20 metres from the nearest house and 160 metres from Lane Cove West Public School ³. Ninety megawatts is the power the site would draw; 81 MW of that is IT load, the share that reaches the servers ³. Local news reports cited more than one million litres of stored diesel and 194,000 kilos of batteries as risks residents raised ³.

So does a withdrawn application in one Sydney suburb move a ledger that counts toward ten gigawatts? It moves it a little. The reasons Goodman gave reach every developer in Australia, and the site itself was small.

Two price tags, both in Australian dollars

Readers of the coverage met two costs. ABC News, Information Age and Capital Brief reported a $1.2 billion project ¹⁴⁶. Grafa reported $798 million ². The gap is a revision on the planning record, and the currency is the same.

Mingtiandi traced both numbers to Goodman's own filings. Goodman first sought planning requirements for the site in March 2025, indicating an investment of roughly A$1.2 billion ³. It then lodged an environmental impact statement in March 2026 that valued the project at A$798 million, which Mingtiandi converted to US$560.1 million ³. The later figure is the one on the application Goodman withdrew. By the ledger's arithmetic, the estimate fell by about a third between the two filings.

Here is a frame worth keeping for any site like this one. A planning application is a plan; an energized hall is compute. Lane Cove stopped at the first stage, and the move below is sized for that.

Goodman named the rules first and the neighbours second

Goodman's public statement, quoted by ABC News, put the reasons in a set order ¹. "During this time, the policy and regulatory environment for large-scale data centre development has evolved significantly," the company said ¹. Its second sentence turned to the suburb. "Goodman has carefully considered these changes together with feedback received through the planning process, including the views of the local community," Goodman said ¹.

Read the order of those clauses. Policy comes first and carries the verb "evolved"; the residents arrive in a trailing phrase, "including the views of the local community." Goodman declined to comment further ³. Its chief executive, Greg Goodman, had earlier told Capital Brief that rising community backlash "means they can't be everywhere" ⁶.

In the week before the letter, Goodman's general manager of developments, Ben McGilp, sat before the first hearing of a federal Senate inquiry into data centres and artificial intelligence ¹. Liberal senator Sarah Henderson pressed him repeatedly to withdraw the proposal on the spot ¹. Goodman's representatives told the inquiry the firm would decide by the end of 2026, and they floated "some form of design change" ⁴. Within a week of that answer, Goodman had withdrawn the application ⁴.

The case for the move: Australia's rules now arrive faster than permits

Three governments moved in two months. New South Wales released a Data Centre Policy Framework in August, offering a 75-day assessment target to projects that meet tougher energy and water standards ³. National Cabinet endorsed mandatory national standards for large data centres on Aug. 26 ³. Victoria then proposed a 150-metre buffer between data centres and homes ³. A federal consultation paper raised a "mandatory minimum distance" from homes and schools, and Labor has said it will legislate national standards by the end of 2026 ⁴.

Sanaa Shah, a senior campaigner at Sweltering Cities who spoke before the Senate committee, read the withdrawal as a national signal. "It's a clear testament to the large scale community resistance that's forming to data centres. It's something we're observing across the country," Shah told ABC News ¹.

Data Centres Australia, the advocacy group for Australia's data centre operators, makes the strongest version of the case. Belinda Dennett, its chief executive, told Capital Brief that developers will pause while the rules settle ⁵. "Until there is more certainty around where policies and regulations will land it is likely we will see more customers, investors and developers adopt a wait and see approach in Australia," Dennett said ⁵. She also warned that "customers and investors have choices and this industry is moving quickly" ⁵. Note who is speaking. An advocacy group for the builders is the voice predicting fewer sites.

A number from the grid operator sits behind her warning. About a third of new data centre projects proposed in the National Electricity Market were cancelled over the past year, according to AEMO, as Information Age reported ⁴. Lane Cove joins that count.

Opponents want the rules to settle the fights before they start. Paul Trainor of the Lane Cove Responsible Planning Group told the Senate hearing that suburbs should stop fighting projects one by one ³. "Rules that determine where data centers can be built, how cumulative impacts and risks are assessed and monitored, and show communities and the environment are to be protected," Trainor said ³. Henderson's statement after the withdrawal set out what such rules would demand. Data centres "must be built in the right places, with proper buffers from homes and schools, rigorous assessment of water, power, noise, diesel emissions, and cumulative impacts, and without shifting infrastructure costs onto local communities," Henderson said ⁴.

Australia's data centre rules tightened around Goodman's Lane Cove application

Timeline

The data4 rows · sources

Date	Event	Source
Aug. 26, 2026	National Cabinet endorses mandatory national standards for large data centres	[3]
Sept. 28, 2026	Guy Smith's letter withdraws Project Mars from the NSW planning system	[3]
Nov. 3, 2026	Senate committee on AI and data centres sits in Darwin	[4]
Nov. 16, 2026	Senate committee's final report due	[4]

The case for a smaller step: Goodman keeps building in Sydney

Earlier in September, the same planning department approved Goodman's Project Apollo, a 135 MW data centre replacing an office park in Macquarie Park, with an end value of around A$1.4 billion ³. Goodman is also building a 90 MW data centre in Artarmon, the suburb next to Lane Cove ⁴. Together, Apollo and Artarmon hold 225 MW in Sydney against the 90 MW withdrawn, by the ledger's arithmetic. Apollo's approval lifted Goodman's Australian pipeline to about one gigawatt of planned capacity ³.

What does the wider book look like? Goodman's development work in progress stood at A$19.7 billion on June 30, up from A$12.9 billion a year earlier, across 50 projects ³. Data centres make up 78 percent of it ²³. Its global power bank grew to 6.4 GW across 16 cities, from 5.0 GW ³. Lane Cove's 90 MW is about 1.4 percent of that power bank, by the ledger's arithmetic.

Rochelle Flood, Lane Cove Council's deputy mayor, voiced the council's opposition at the Senate hearing and celebrated the withdrawal online ⁴. Her own words carry the strongest case for a small step. "We know there are more hyperscale data centres in the pipeline but today is a win worth celebrating – for our community and for the environment," Flood wrote ⁴. The winner of the fight names the limit of the win in the same sentence.

Grandfathering narrows the effect further. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said the national rules will spare projects already approved or under construction, and Victoria's buffer covers new applications only ³. Apollo and Artarmon both sit on the protected side of that line. Grafa reported Goodman's share price down at $26.30 after the announcement ².

Goodman withdrew 90 MW in Lane Cove and keeps 225 MW nearby

Compared

The data3 rows · sources

Unit: MW

Item	Value	Source
Project Mars, Lane Cove withdrawn Sept. 28	90	[3]
Artarmon under construction	90	[4]
Project Apollo, Macquarie Park approved in September	135	[3]

Belinda Dennett predicts a pause; Rochelle Flood sees more sites coming

Both sides

The data2 rows · sources

Side	Who	Claim	Source
For	Belinda Dennett	More customers, investors and developers will likely wait and see in Australia until policies and regulations settle.	[5]
Against	Rochelle Flood	More hyperscale data centres sit in the pipeline, and Lane Cove's withdrawal is one community's win.	[4]

Where this sits on the ledger

The move is down 0.2 on compute, at reported confidence. Four press outlets carry the letter and the numbers, and Goodman's own statement confirms the withdrawal ¹³⁴⁶. The method's reported band runs from 0.3 to 0.8, with 50 MW at its floor. This step sits under that floor for two stated reasons. Project Mars was an application, so it removes planned capacity and leaves energized capacity untouched. Goodman also gained 135 MW of approved Sydney capacity in the same month.

Compute has read 0 on this ledger since March 11, so the clamp holds the component at 0 while its net records the step. Against the definition's ten gigawatts acting as one machine, 90 MW is 0.9 percent. The signal worth weighing is the rulebook, and the rulebook arrives later, in Parliament, with its own evidence.

Goodman's Lane Cove withdrawal pulls compute down 0.2 points

The move

The data5 rows · sources

Measure	Value
Reading before this day	2.1
This piece's move	−0.2 (Compute, reported)
Band for reported evidence	0.3 to 0.8
Reading after the day (with 4 other pieces that day)	1.7
Distance to 100	98.3

By the numbers

• 90 MW of power draw and 81 MW of IT load planned for Project Mars ³
• A$798 million in the March 2026 environmental impact statement, down from roughly A$1.2 billion indicated in March 2025 ³
• Twenty metres to the nearest house, and 160 metres to Lane Cove West Public School ¹³
• Only nine of 374 public submissions supported the project ³
• 135 MW at Project Apollo in Macquarie Park, approved earlier in September ³
• About one third of new data centre projects proposed in the National Electricity Market cancelled over the past year, per AEMO ⁴
• Goodman's A$19.7 billion of development work, 78 percent of it data centres ²³

What to watch

The Senate committee on AI and data centres sits next in Canberra, then in Darwin on Nov. 3, and its final report is due on Nov. 16 ⁴. National legislation by the end of 2026 would show whether buffers and water rules apply in every state ⁴. A second developer withdrawing a Sydney or Melbourne application would confirm Dennett's pause and justify a larger step down. Artarmon energizing and Apollo breaking ground would point the other way, and would leave Lane Cove as one suburb's decision.